A Family Affair
by Atlas Arrow
Summary: AU. When Vanya and Kraken's relationship is discovered in the old days of the Umbrella Academy, catastrophic consequences occur. The situation is only complicated by the arrival of a villain with a dark connection to the Academy's past. Kraken/Vanya
1. Chapter 1

"What I don't understand," Séance said as he, Space, and Horror walked down the hall, "is why the food is never purple."

Space cast him a sidelong glance from the corner of his eye. Horror sighed. So it began, yet again.

"Generally that means its gone bad," pointed out Space.

"To some people yeah," snorted Séance, "but I think it's just a matter of seeing all the pretty colors. Food should come in prettier colors, and not just desserts. I'm thinking about entrées here. Rainbow trout that's real rainbow and shit like that. And speaking of pretty colors, anyone see Vanya's new haircut?"

"What?" asked Horror, "I didn't think that she'd cut her hair. I mean, it looked the same to me today."

"Ah, don't be stupid. You know what I'm talking about," Séance said vaguely, "Her hair's all short now."

"That happened two years ago," Space said carefully, "And what does that have to do with colors?"

"Ah, shapes, colors," said Séance, "They're the same thing, you know?"

Once more there was the covert glance.

"No," Spaceboy said firmly, "They're not."

"Wow," Séance smirked, "Somebody's grumpy, you big grumpy monkey."

"You're high Séance," said Space frostily.

"Ah," frowned Séance, "High is such a very ugly word. I prefer the term smashed, or pissed. I know they're both drinking terms, but it's how I feel. By the way, does anyone know the way to the Banana King?"

As soon as he finished speaking Séance fell forward onto the ground suddenly.

"I'll take that as a no then?" he giggled from the floor.

Space cast a sidelong glance at Horror. Horror turned his head away. Over the past year Séance's substance abuse had gone from bad to worse. It had gotten to the point that Hargreeves had Séance searched every time he came into the house, but to no avail. Somehow he had gotten it in his system and there it stayed.

Over the past few years Séance himself had changed too. Horror doubted that much of his brother was left in there. He couldn't be one hundred percent sure though. It wasn't like Séance talked to him anymore, well, not about anything important anyway. Then again, Séance rarely talked to anyone those days. To Horror it looked like the whole thing was spiraling out of control.

"Do you need me help?" asked Horror as Spaceboy bent down to pick up Séance.

"Always appreciated," he said.

Horror bent down and took his right arm at the same time Space took his left. Hoisting him up they started walking back the way they came.

"Hey!" demanded Séance, "Where're you taking me?"

"Your room," Space said authoratively.

"That's cool," shrugged Séance, as best he could in his half dragged position.

Space shook his head.

"This is just great," he muttered, "We're on patrol in ten minutes and Rumor's at the library. We're going to have to get Kraken. Can't just go on patrol with two members. It's dangerous. Do you know where he is?"

Horror shook his head and Space sighed. No one ever knew where Kraken was, except perhaps Vanya. Maybe they could ask her. She had just returned from college after all. That thought gave him pause, even as he continued dragging his incapacitated brother along. It was odd that she was away so much of the time. Well, make that all of the time. It had taken him two years to get used to the idea that she was in college, and a college halfway around the country no less.

Ah yes. Colleges, the Grand Institutes of learning. Horror thought wistfully about college. He hadn't even gone to a formal high school, much less a college. It was probably a little late for him to start at twenty though. Maybe he could go some day. It wasn't a completely insane idea. Other people had done it. Now, if Hargreeves would only let him…well, that was for another time. In any case, he voiced his opinion on asking Vanya to Space.

"I suppose," grumbled Space, "If that's our only option."

"Why do you say it like that?" frowned Horror.

The look Space gave him said that he clearly shouldn't be questioned. However, he did answer.

"You know what I mean. Whenever she comes back from college she acts…different."

Horror frowned, trying to see this difference in her behavior that Space did.

"You mean…happy?" ventured Horror.

Once more Space shot him the glare.

"I mean energetic," he snapped, "Bounces back from just about everything Hargreeves says to her. Oh, she doesn't answer back, but she's different. In the past she used to go off and sulk like a dog that's been hit. Now she's not even upset fifteen minutes after it. It's like she's completely thrown common sense out the window."

"I sulk enough for the both of us," Séance insisted.

Horror just shook his head at his brother before turning back to Space.

"Isn't that…a good thing?"

Space rolled his eyes as they approached the hallway that held their rooms. He paused as they went by Vanya's.

"We can hit hers up first," he said, trying the doorknob.

Suddenly he frowned.

"What?" asked Horror, shifting his feet so he could reassert his hold on Séance.

"It's locked," he said.

"We can come back later," shrugged Horror.

"We need to know where Kraken is **now**," he said.

Then he placed his hand on the doorknob, and gripped it tightly. Jerking it to the left the door sprung open. Horror was surprised. He had no idea that Space was anywhere near that strong. It also raised some other, rather uncomfortable questions. If the door to their room was locked, and Space wanted to get in…then he could. He could just yank the door open. Goodbye privacy. Horror wanted to say something indignant, but what he saw when the door opened killed the sentence on his lips.

When the door had opened, Vanya and Kraken had whipped around, but it was too late to do anything. They didn't have time to react, so their arms were still wrapped around each other and Vanya was still up against a wall. More damning then **either **of these things was the fact that Vanya's lipstick was smeared, some on her face and some on Kraken's. This led to a very awkward silence between the people who had burst in and those who had been ambushed. Suddenly Séance burst out;

"Vanya and Diego, sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"


	2. Chapter 2

A man panted heavily as he moved through the alleys. He wasn't dressed for long distant runs. The only thing he was actually dressed appropriately for was a semi-formal dinner. Under a very black dress jacket was a slightly unbuttoned white shirt. However, the shirt wasn't quite pristine. For one thing it had a big black spade design on it, like the kind you got on an ace in a card game. Despite the darkness of the night he wore black sunglasses.

It had been a long night, one that he wasn't prepared to go through again. There had been far too many risks involved in something that was based on a rumor. Actually it wasn't even in a whisper of a rumor. Yet, he'd made some wonderful progress that night. She'd be pleased. That thought made an unpleasant smile cross his lips before he stopped in front of a door.

Knocking on it three times he waited. Slowly a hatch on the door opened and he saw a pair of shrewd eyes looking at him.

"I gamble with my life tonight," he said in Russian.

"Life **is** a gamble," the woman said tonelessly in the same language, "Who do the winnings go to?"

"The one with the hidden ace," the man replied back.

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Remember that the dealer always wins."

The hatch closed and the door opened. The woman wore a pantsuit lined with different line-ups of slots. If she'd been in the slots section of any Vegas casino then she'd probably blend in better then with any camouflage. She looked at him up and down once or twice.

"Come on Slots," he said, rolling his eyes, "You know it's me."

"Whatever you say 'Blackjack'," she said skeptically, "Whatever you say."

However, she did move away from the door and allow him in. God she irritated him. Despite the fact that she was his second cousin, he'd never gotten along with her. She was just too…too…**too**. Perhaps he should've gotten into a crime ring that was less family oriented. Too late for that though. Monte Carlo was an institution you entered for life.

Other then the family-orientation he did have to admit that it was probably the best crime ring out there, or at least the most productive. Anyone could admire the way that the business had escalated in the last few years. It had gone from a very small operation to the height of infamy in under fifteen years. It had all started so simple with the norm, burning down towns, kidnapping people, and scrambling cable signals.

All of those things were actually pretty minor. As for scrambling cable signals…well…that was something else. It wasn't even really a true crime. Scrambling cable signals was more of a super-villain prank. It's actually caused a lot more panic then you'd think. However, they'd been a fourth-rate villain group.

Soon though, they'd gotten involved with the mafia and things had escalated. They started burning down **cities**, kidnapping **politicians**, and **blackmailing** cable stations. Occasionally they still scrambled the cable signals though, just for old times sake. It was amazing growth. What made it all even **more** amazing was that there were only six members in total.

For icing on the cake both the FBI and CIA had put them on the most wanted list. Albeit it was at the very bottom, and they were pretty much unknown, but they were on it. It was actually a point of pride that neither association actually knew any of their real names. Blackjack himself was even starting to forget what his real name was. The set-up was **that **good. As for who they all owed it to…she was something of a genius.

Stepping into the main room he spied woman sitting on a crushed red velvet chair. Others were around her, but she was elevated above the rest as if to emphasize her status. She was middle-aged, but you'd never know it from the amount of surgery that she'd had. It had given her a slightly plastic look, which was probably only compounded by the fire-engine red lipstick she insisted on wearing.

Other things contributed to the look. She had a good deal of make-up on, perhaps even rouge. Like Blackjack she wore black sunglasses, only of a slightly better make. They matched her long black hair, which was slightly tangled in her large gold hoop earrings. Golden bangles practically dripped off of her arms. To top it off was a thigh-length bronze/gold dress with a black and red checkered pattern border.

Yet, she still managed to look very relaxed. In fact, she looked almost serene as he approached.

"News?" she asked cheerfully.

The others were perking up at this line of questioning. They probably expected him to fail. Well too bad for them.

"A good deal," he said as he handed her a thick sheaf of papers he'd been keeping under his jacket, "It appears that it's her. You were right, as usual Madame Roulette."

Roulette didn't look up when she was addressed. Instead she kept flicking through the papers as though needing a specific confirmation. Finally she stopped and sighed deeply.

"Thank God," she murmured.

A few other members started whispering to each other on the new turn of events. Blackjack knew what this information meant to both Roulette and the entire assembly. He smiled as he thought that **he **would be the one who'd be remembered for bringing the news. He cleared his throat, determined to look as good as possible while he could.

"She will be moved in a few weeks," he said, "I've gotten place names as well. You'll notice that I highlighted a few other things that might be useful."

Roulette flipped through the packet again and nodded her head.

"You did very well tonight Blackjack. We'll have to increase your share from 10% of the gamble to 20%."

He smiled before stepping with the rest of the crowd. He saw Slots' envious glare and he smiled venomously at her. His moment of triumph was cut short when Roulette got up from her chair and said;

"We'll start progress tomorrow. Is there anyone here who doubts the plan?"

There was silence. Roulette smiled and threw down the packet of papers onto her chair. She scanned the crowd quickly and said;

"Are we prepared to take this chance for what is mine?"

"Yes!" several people shouted.

"Are we ready to take back what is **ours**?"

"Yes!"

"Do you wish to gamble for a bigger portion, a better one then we have heretofore been given?"

"Yes!"

Pausing for a minute Roulette's eyes lit up.

"Are we ready to avenge ourselves for the death of my husband?"

"Yes!"

She paused once more, just to let the effect take hold. Blackjack could see that this was her favorite part, hands down.

"ARE WE READY TO DESTROY THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY!" she shouted.

"**YES**!"


	3. Chapter 3

"You are a disgrace."

Vanya and Kraken sat in front of Hargreeves' desk. Vanya was looking at the wood of the desk, obviously bracing herself. It had been a shock to both of them when their siblings had come barging into the room. Talk about bad timing. Now they both had to deal with Hargreeves, something Kraken had been hoping to avoid.

However, Vanya had worse memories of the confrontation experience then Kraken had. Underneath the table, where no one else could see, he could feel her hand grip his tighter. That made him hold up his head up and glare at the man he had once called 'father'.

"Now," Hargreeves said as he smashed his cigar into an ash tray, "I know I've called you both that several times over the past years, but don't become desensitized to it. This is disgusting."

The hand that wasn't holding onto Vanya's clenched into a fist. How dare he! He managed to tilt his head up a little further and double his glare. Fucking bastard didn't deserve his fear or subservience. Fucking fucking bastard.

"Obviously we don't think it is," he shot back.

Hargreeves raised his eyebrows.

"Did I say that you could speak .02?" he asked casually, "No. So don't interrupt me. Now, where was I again? Oh yes. As I was saying, I can't believe that this happened under this roof. I can't believe that anyone in their right mind would do something like this with their **sister**."

"As you keep reminding us," snarled Kraken, "We're adopted, with no relation to you or anyone else in this house."

"Excuse me?" said Hargreeves, eyebrows raised.

"You remind us every other day that you're not our father," Vanya said calmly, "It's hard to believe that you'd forget it."

Silently Kraken applauded his Vanya.

"Has your opinion **ever **mattered?" Hargreeves asked.

"Not to **you**," she said, "no."

Vanya shared a glance with Kraken as if to finish her sentence with him as punctuation. Not to **you**, no. To Kraken however, it meant a good deal. She knew that and he grinned at her encouragingly. The shakedown was turning out to be not as bad as they'd both been expecting. They just had to hold their ground.

Hargreeves shook his head and walked to the other side of his desk. He always chose to yell at them from his desk. It made the whole thing more confrontational. That sort of setting could scare the hell out of a kid. When she was younger he knew that Vanya usually left his office in tears. He was generally too overbearing for a child anyway.

Not today though. He knew how much it meant for her to say something against him, and she'd managed it. Kraken grinned at her again.

"At least you know that," Hargreeves continued, "But this is without a doubt the worst thing that has ever happened in this house."

"What were you thinking?" asked Space.

Ah yes. To add to their humiliation Space was standing there, watching them with disapproval. Fucking hypocritical tattle-tale. Doors were locked for a reason, and the first one was so that other people couldn't go barging in when they felt like it.

"I don't know," Kraken said sarcastically, "But it definitely wasn't about how I was letting 'the team' down."

Space narrowed his eyes as Hargreeves said;

"And here we were with .07 going back to school in three weeks. Seriously, can you go on a summer break **without **getting into trouble? Just once? Hmmm?"

"Not if it means hurting myself in the process," she snapped.

"You're being selfish," Space said.

"Says you. Personally I don't think that we need to be here listening to either of you bastards," Kraken growled.

Hargreeves cocked his head as he lit another cigar.

"You know what .02? I think that this is all just some clever little invention of you 'rebellious' stage," said Hargreeves, "You'd probably start a relationship with a prostitute if it fit this new 'lone wolf' image you've started cultivating. So tell me, why did you choose .07 if that would do? It would certainly be easier with my suggestion."

The words made him angry and red flashed in front of his eyes. He didn't know shit about Kraken if he said something like that. The things he wanted to say to him, the names he wanted to call him. Actually, getting out the knife he had in his pocket and cutting up his face into patchwork would be better than just spouting insults. Yeah, that's what he'd do…

Then he felt Vanya's hand under the table. Only then did he realize what effect that the words must be having on her. They must hurt more for her…wouldn't they? He looked at her expression. Yeah, she was upset. Damn Hargreeves for making her feel that way! Turning away from Hargreeves he reached out a hand and turned her face towards him.

"You know how I feel about you."

She nodded, something like a smile flitting across her lips. However, she had a flicker of uncertainty in her face. He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss it away. He wanted to take away any type of pain that she was feeling, protect her. Kraken hadn't felt like this with anyone else before, this odd feeling of possessiveness. His hand reached out for her shoulder, and-

"If you're quite finished," sneered Hargreeves.

Kraken turned around and narrowed his eyes. Fucking bastard.

"Perhaps we should conclude this," Hargreeves said, still a slight sneer in his voice, "Patrol starts soon and unfortunately crime won't sleep for you ridiculous little ill-advised relationship. One's also a good deal more important than the other."

"You're right about that," Kraken said, not letting go of Vanya's face.

Hargreeves shook his head.

"So the two of you remain unrepentant?"

Kraken couldn't count the number of times he'd been asked that in her life. Every time he'd answered no the consequences had been disastrous. Still, he couldn't lie about this. To even think about lying about it was so wrong to him…so he didn't have the option. Kraken found that he didn't want it either.

He shared a look with Vanya. She nodded almost imperceptibly to him. He grinned and answered cockily;

"Obviously."


	4. Chapter 4

Saying it was cold would be an understatement. It was absolutely frigid. There was warmth underneath the covers, but Vanya knew that if she so much as peered over them then she'd freeze. She'd seen icicles were forming outside of the window for crying out loud! There was snow! It might be the middle of December, but it didn't have any right to be so cold **inside **the building.

The Hargreeves heating system seldom broke, but it appeared that that night was an exception. Of course, it could turn out to be one of Hargreeves's sick punishments. Heaven knew that that man had quite a few, and Hell probably knew about them too. Of course, if this was a punishment for her latest incitement of his wrath, then Vanya figured that it was pretty mild.

She was starting to wonder if it was a **new** kind of torture though. Instead of getting one really huge punishment, she'd have several stretched out over a few weeks. It was sort of like Chinese water torture, one little thing at a time. Well, she wouldn't crack, even though everything was mounting up against her.

Already she'd been grounded. Then she'd been all but locked into her room with almost everything taken away. Vanya was starting to feel like she was under some sort of house arrest. All of her contact with Kraken had been cut off, and she wasn't even allowed to speak to him if she did, by some odd twist of fate, manage to see him. She'd figured something of that sort would happen, but not to this extent.

At least Pogo came every now and then to talk or give her a book. He never broached the subject of why she was being punished in the first place though. Perhaps Hargreeves had told him not to. That must've been the reason. She doubted it was because he agreed with him. Still, even if Pogo did side with Hargreeves it wasn't going to change her mind.

Vanya snuggled deeper into the duvet as she thought about the meeting that had taken place three weeks ago. Things certainly had taken a turn for the more uncomfortable and dangerous lately. The word "Obviously" had ignited a hailstorm of consequences, ending in her all but imprisoned in her room. Now she had spent weeks in there. She'd be returning to the college campus the next day, so at least she knew when it would end. It had been a thoroughly miserable set of weeks though. All she could do was go through her room to the adjoining bathroom.

Yet, she was still unrepentant, so to speak. She refused to see that there was something wrong with what she had done. Now if only-

"Damn it's cold in here. Think it might actually be warmer outside if you get my drift."

Forgetting that the room could've been a freezer Vanya jerked the duvet back from over her head. Ignoring the blast of cold air she peered into the darkness. Despite the blackness she could make out two blue eyes and a mischievous look.

"Diego?"

"One and only," he grinned, closing the window behind him.

"Yeah," she said, drawing the blanket back again, "That sounds like you. It probably isn't a dream then. Just my luck."

"Come on," he said, kneeling on the bed next to her, "You sound almost as if you're not happy to see me."

"It's freezing," she snapped.

He looked at her speculatively for a moment. Then he grinned again.

"Move over."

"**What**?"

Instead of answering her he climbed onto the bed and started to get under the covers.

"You're freezing!" she exclaimed

"Hell," he snorted impatiently, "Of course I'm cold. I came through the window. Had to lower myself down from the roof. I actually scraped my hands on icicles."

There was an accusing subtext there that Vanya didn't miss. Kraken wasn't exactly subtle. The good old I've-come-all-this-way-to-see-you-and-now-you're-mad. Worked every time.

"I get it, I get it," she said, feigning reluctance but allowing him to wrap his arms around her.

"Now that's better," he murmured, laying a chaste kiss to the back of her neck.

He paused for a minute before pulling her a little closer, almost protectively.

"Heating's not out in the rest of the building," he said.

"Thought so," sighed Vanya.

She felt him breathe out against the back of her neck.

"I'm gonna kill that bastard."

"Nothing you can do."

"He's not allowed to hurt you."

"While I appreciate the sentiment I reiterate; there's nothing you can do."

"I should've known," Kraken muttered, "I should've known that Space would come looking for me. And I shouldn't have been…"

"It was a freak accident," Vanya said, "Don't beat yourself up about it."

His only response was silence. Sighing she rolled over she could face him, moving closer to him almost habitually. They'd done this many times before after all.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later," she said, "but we're still together, right?"

"Right," Kraken agreed, "Only thing is that now we've lost almost the entire break. He might not even let you back for the next one. Damn Hargreeves."

The idea of not coming back hurt. Yet, she managed to swallow her discomfort enough to say;

"It's not so bad. I'll see you again sometime."

She saw him shake his head.

"How the hell can you not be mad at me?" he asked.

"For what?"

"Getting caught. Not coming sooner. Pick your choice."

She laughed and hit him playfully.

"You just blame yourself too much," she said.

"And you don't blame me enough," he said.

Vanya laughed again, and then there was a slight pause. Kraken moved his face closer until she could feel his nose touching hers.

"How did I manage with you gone these past few months?" he murmured huskily, "I'm going to miss you like hell when you leave."

A sharp pain welled up in her chest.

"Me too," she whispered, "but I'll see you again. Just don't give up on me, okay?"

He lowered his head down so his lips were resting in the hollow of her throat. She could feel them whisper their promise against her skin as he said;

"Never. You're mine."

She tightened her hold on him and let one hand slide to the back of his head. Kraken sighed and she felt his hot breath move across her throat. Tracing her collarbone he left a burning trail of kisses. He stopped his kisses a few inches below her jaw as she slide her hands to his chest. Just when they were resting on his collarbone she felt his teeth skim her skin. She had to bite her lip to keep back a moan.

Using what was left of her coherent thoughts she slipped her hands under his shirt. Now it was his turn to stifle a moan. She gave a breathy laugh.

"Some send-off."

Kraken grinned before descending on her lips once more. After that, there was no more talking.


	5. Chapter 5

"I…I honestly don't know it…" a man said, whimpering in the corner.

"Awww," said Slots, as she pulled out a revolver, "That's really too bad, isn't it Klondike?"

A heavily-built man in a ripped tuxedo smiled at her. Slowly he reached into his pocket and pulled out two dice.

"A crying shame," he replied.

"I'm telling you the truth," he said, "I don't know anything."

"Not if you think lying to us is a good idea," Slots said pleasantly, the emotion not reaching her eyes.

"I'm not lying-"

"May I remind you of your disposability?" she said, fingering the revolver, "You saw what we did to your co-workers, and we can do it to you just as easily."

"I…I…I…"

"Don't try to be a hero you little asshole," Klondike said, tossing the dice up and down in his hand.

The man's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he practically shivered in terror. Slots tugged on her translation collar angrily. Roulette would have her head if she didn't get this tonight. There had already been massive delays. If they tried to move before they got this…well…the plan was a gamble to start with. Most things that Monte Carlo did were. Most of those gambles proved profitable, but she knew that they could also take an ugly side.

She sighed again. This man might've been petrified with fear, but he wasn't going to tell them anything without some form of stimulus. She'd be more then happy to supply that.

"Fine," she said, "You can be like that, mister my-lips-are-sealed. That's just fine. Klondike, rip out his spine."

"Fun," Klondike answered, taking a step forwards.

"No wait!" the man wailed, "The combination's 248-57-2485-0-2435!"

Thank goodness that had worked. Casually Slots placed her gun back into the holster and went up to the door. She punched in the numbers quickly and the door slid open.

"Excellent," she said, smiling for the first time that night, "Klondike, you may continue."

"But…but…" sputtered the man, "You said-!"

"I didn't **say **anything," replied Slots serenely, "You just inferred."

His screams made excellent background noise as Slots searched the halls hidden only a few seconds earlier by the door. Finding the briefcase she was after, she carried it nonchalantly back into the main hallway.

"Found it."

Klondike finished wiping the blood from his hands on the wall. He eyed the briefcase critically.

"You'd think it'd look more impressive," he said.

"Not everyone has our taste for theatricality," Slots shrugged as she started to walk towards the exit.

"If it were me," he said, following her closely, "I'd put some red and gold on it. Make it have a little more…pizzazz."

"Apparently the UN doesn't go for pizzazz," Slots said dryly, "I mean…they keep their nukes in a storage closet for dealer's sake. They should move it to a more secure area. Anyone can just walk in and take it!"

"I think we did a little more then that," Klondike said, gesturing to the bodies they were leaving behind.

"Yeah," she said, "We did. But you know what I mean. So how's Poker coming with the drugs for the target? Last I heard they were in the experimental stage. But then again, I'm more of a field girl so I tend not to pay attention to his little experiments."

"He's says they're as ready as they're ever going to be. However, he said a lot of things like the mind is a delicate thing, blah blah bah…you know. I was never very technically minded either."

"Well, it must've been quite awhile since I last checked in on him then. I bet Roulette's pleased at that though," speculated Slots, "On that note how's that berserker drug coming along?

"I'd say that it's coming along pretty good," Klondike said, flexing his muscles, "I was the first field test run tonight."

Slots smiled at him.

"Now, how'd you like it? And be honest. On a scale of one to ten," she said, pushing the doors open, "How did you think it worked?"

"I've never been able to take a man's spine out so easily before," he said, "It was like peeling off a sticker."

"Really?" she asked, obviously interested as they walked to a limousine, "Then it really is ready. Tell me, had he been able to mass-produce it yet? I can't wait to get my hands on it."

"Well," said Klondike reflectively, "It's still in its early stages and he says that it might have a good deal of side effects."

Slots frowned as she threw the briefcase into the back seat. She got into the car and slammed the door behind her. She took great care not to buckle up when she got in. Pressing her foot on the gas she said;

"What do you mean it **might **have a good deal of side effects?"

Klondike shrugged as the car sped along.

"Some of the test subjects hallucinated and others became extremely suicidal," he said, "Others started foaming at the mouth. Other then that the rest were fine."

"How much of a chance it'll happen to us?"

"Fifty-fifty."

"Bad margins to take when we're on a mission."

"I prefer to gamble."

Laughing Slots said;

"Is anything we do **not **a gamble?"

"Of course not," grinned Klondike.


	6. Chapter 6

Memories of the night before with Vanya lingered with Kraken as he went downtown with the rest of the Academy to solve a 'situation'. Yes, situation was a nice general word. It described just about everything while at the same time absolutely nothing. It could be a simple bank robbery, or it could be about how Murderer Zombie King Necromancer Bob decided to build a freeze ray to destroy the City. Unfortunately for Kraken, it was the latter.

Still, he had been on worse raids. Murderer Zombie King Necromancer Bob was dealt with promptly, leading to a complete saving of the city. Naturally Murderer Zombie King Necromancer Bob got away, if only for the fact that he generally had a second escape route somewhere. He always had a second escape route, sometimes even as many as eight. It was like it was all some sort of fucked up game for him.

Normally Kraken wouldn't have minded. Super-villains were all insane in some way or another and generally didn't take anything they did seriously. However, today he had better things to do. Most important on the list was seeing Vanya off at the airport. He'd doubted that he'd be able to do that from the start, which was the main reason why he'd gone to see her the night before. Still, he might've been able to have the time if Murderer Zombie King Necromancer Bob hadn't woken up that morning and thought;

"I think it's a great day to freeze the City!"

Then again, Hargreeves probably wouldn't have let him. The amount of control that he had over their lives infuriated Kraken to no end.

"Kraken!" Space barked, "Are you going to help us move this freeze ray or not!"

"Yeah!" groaned Séance, "It's heavy as hell!"

Snapping out of his thoughts Kraken looked over at the rest of his 'family' as they tried to move the freeze ray out of the pad of its firing technology. Shaking his head he moved over and began pulling. It really was heavy as hell.

"Why can't you just levitate this piece of shit," Kraken grunted to Séance.

"I asked him that two minutes ago!" snapped Rumor, "And he said that he can't move endothermic materials!"

"Looks like you were in la-la land," groused Séance, "That's **my **job."

"I wasn't distracted," Kraken shot back, pulling on the heavy object.

"**Of course** you weren't," Space said.

Abruptly Kraken dropped the section that he was pulling. There were various exclamations of complaint on the other side, but Kraken ignored them. Narrowing his eyes at Space he said;

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"It doesn't mean anything."

"Yeah right," snorted Kraken, "Now what the hell was that supposed to mean?"

Deciding to drop the pretense, as he always did, Space put down his end and looked Kraken in the eye. From his stance Kraken realized that he was going to do one of his team leader speeches. Not again.

"Well, you seem to be getting distracted a lot these days," Space said, "And you also seem to have a ridiculous death wish."

"Excuse me?" asked Kraken through gritted teeth.

"Where should I start?" countered Space sarcastically, "Oh…I know. Your rather compulsive manner of getting yourself into trouble."

"…and what's wrong with that?"

"Oh," said Space offhandedly, "Just the fact that you've basically lapsed into a rather stupid version of civil disobedience or rather, parental disobedience."

"Look," Horror said nervously, "I don't think there's any need to-"

Horror never thought that there was any need for anything. Well fuck him.

"It's called having a life," Kraken said, "I'd try it sometime Monkey-ass."

"Oh yes, quite a life. A life where you don't care if someone else gets hurt in the process of your little joy ride," Spaceboy said, "You don't give a shit if someone gets into trouble because you're trying to be the rebel."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Kraken growled.

"Vanya of course," sneered Space, "She wouldn't even be in the situation she is now if not for you."

"Situation?"

"Hargreeves is filing a card for her permanent residence near the college."

Ice and fire filled him and Kraken gritted his teeth.

"Does she know?"

"She'll be told when she gets there," said Space coolly, "You've only got yourself to blame for this Diego. **You **didn't leave him with any other option."

That was the last thing he heard. The next thing he knew he'd slammed his fist into Space's stomach, sending him flying until he hit the opposite wall with a loud thud.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Diego!?" Rumor yelled.

"Beating the shit out of him!" Kraken howled as he ran after his target.

Space had gotten to his feet by the time Kraken got there, but it didn't slow him down. It hardly even registered. He just summoned up all the strength in him and gave him the hardest right hook to the face he'd ever given. Space jerked his head back and swatted at Kraken with one of his large Ape hands, sending Kraken to the floor. Quickly Space moved to hit him again, and after that everything was chaos.

There was no real goal to their fighting as there had been in the past. There was no real strategy or technique to what they were doing. It was impossible to even tell which one of them was winning. All there was was the incredible rage, the overpowering urge to hurt the other, and the heat from both the anger and the exertion.

Then came the freezing cold. With it came the realization that he could no longer move. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Horror operating the freeze ray and looking apologetically at them.

"I uh," he said, "I think you can…uh…still talk and breath and…stuff. I…put it on the lowest setting…it should only last for ten minutes…but…well…uh…you see…you guys were gonna kill each other…"

"What's new?" snarled Rumor, "Why are you two such morons? Do you have any idea what you look like right now?"

"Oooh! Oooh! I know!" volunteered Séance enthusiastically, "They look like Hargreevesicles!"

Rumor rolled her eyes. Flickering his eyes away from them he stared back at Space, who was looking at him with rage.

"You're still disgusting," Space snapped.

Kraken was once more struck with the overpowering urge to clobber his brother. However, seeing as he couldn't, the most he could do was talk trash back, and he didn't have a particularly good reply ready. Turning his eyes to the rest of his siblings he said, barely controlling his anger;

"The rest of you feel the same way?"

"Nail who you like," shrugged Séance, "See if I care."

Horror looked towards the ceiling, indecisive as always. Only Rumor snapped;

"Of course!"

Kraken tried and failed to raise his eyebrows at her.

"Says the woman who actually does put notches in her lip stick case?"

Rumor reddened indignantly.

"Ooooooooh! How 'ya like **them **apples?" Séance whistled.

Once again looking at Space Kraken hissed so that only he could hear him;

"And do you know what? You're jealous. Jealous that I had the guts to defy Hargreeves' orders over the woman I love and all you can do is mope about it. So don't blame me for your fucking cowardice."

The rage was still in Space's eyes, but Kraken had undeniably struck a nerve. He was opening his mouth to say something when Rumor's communicator rang. She picked it up and made a few 'a huh' noises. Finally she clicked it off and said;

"See if you can thaw them out Ben. Apparently there's some trouble at the airport."


	7. Chapter 7

Vanya hated airports. She wasn't really sure why that was. It wasn't like she'd had bad experiences at them. Perhaps it was the fact that they were overcrowded and understaffed. Maybe it was that they were hard to get around, and that the seats were impossible to get comfortable in. Or perhaps, and this was the most likely theory, she didn't like the fact that they never seemed to take her anywhere good.

College was probably the stupidest thing in the world. Well, maybe not all of them were. Hers was though. Hargreeves had decided that if she was going to a College, then she might as well go to one with ivy growing on it. So he'd given out a few bribes here and there and gotten her into one with an excellent reputation. Vanya, however, was not Ivy League material. So she struggled with the classes and the professors.

Then there were the students. Everyone, and she meant everyone, had gone Greek. If you weren't in a sorority or fraternity then there was absolutely no chance of having a social life. To her though, the sororities at her school seemed to be filled with catty rich bitches that spent eight hours each morning trying to figure out what to wear. It was like a whole club full of Rumors. Needless to say, Vanya wasn't in a sorority.

The other place that airports took her was to Hargreeves manor. While it gave her the ability to see Kraken, that didn't make it a good place. It just meant that it was marginally better then College. Because of all the terrible things that had happened there it was a very slim margin, and the only reason it wasn't in negative points was because Kraken was there. Of course, now that the cat was out of the bag she doubted she even had that to comfort her anymore.

"Vanya?" Pogo asked, "Your plane is going to board soon."

Shaking off those thoughts and plastering a fake smile Vanya nodded. The two of them walked in silence as they started to approach the terminal. Suddenly Pogo said;

"Vanya, there's something I think you should know."

Her fake smile slipping she looked down at Pogo.

"I…" he started, "You and Diego…"

Not Pogo too. After all the shit Hargreeves had given her she wasn't in the mood to hear another word about it.

"Save your lectures," she said bitingly.

"I'm not going to lecture you," said Pogo softly, "I just wanted to tell you, now that I have the chance…I'm happy for the two of you."

Vanya looked at him, surprised. All that time he'd remained silent…she brushed away a few tears with the back of her hand. Then she knelt down and hugged him.

"You have no idea how much that means to me," she murmured, "Everyone else just…"

"I know," he said, "Give everyone a few months. I think that even Hargreeves will forget in time. A word of caution though."

Confused, Vanya pulled away to see Pogo's concerned face.

"I think he needs you," he said, "And I honestly think that it would crush him if you left. I know that the manor hasn't been…the **best **place to come home too. But…and he's also got a violent temper…and I'm just worried-"

"No worries there," Vanya laughed, "I'm not going to let him go without a fight. And he's not going to hurt me."

There was some slight skepticism in Pogo's eyes, but it quickly vanished. He gave her an encouraging smile, and she returned it.

"Давайте видеть некоторую резню!"

Pogo and Vanya turned around to see three people at the end of the terminal, one of them waving a fist in the air. She was about to brush it off when the man waving the fist threw some dice in an overly dramatic style onto the floor. Just when she was wondering what the hell he was doing, the dice lit up. Then a sound began. It was like a whine, only much higher pitched. It started out soft, and then it grew to the point that Vanya had to cover her ears.

Windows shattered, spraying glass everywhere. Yet, the noise still continued. Vanya felt herself losing the ability to keep her balance, even losing control of the hands clapped tightly over her ears. All around her people were having the same problems. She fell to the floor, acutely aware of how potent the noise was. Any longer and she was sure that all of her blood vessels would pop. Suddenly it stopped.

Surprised she tried to get up. However, whatever effects it must've had apparently hadn't worn off. It was about then that she noticed ruby red heels clicking relentlessly towards her. The rest of the figure came into view as the woman crouched down. Vanya felt disconcerted by the incredible eagerness showing on her face despite the dark sunglasses.

"О мой Бог, это - Вы! Это - действительно Вы!" she said excitedly.

Vanya blinked at her.

"Я искал Вас так долго! Теперь Вы – здесь… и Вы - точно, как я вообразил Вас! Хорошо, ваши волосы - небольшой различный ...но мы можем установить это!" the woman continued.

Slowly she reached her hand forward. Vanya tried to flinch away, sure that something incredibly painful was about to happen. The paralysis, however, retained its grip over her. She braced herself. Then, to her surprise, the movement was just to brush a few strands of hair away from her face. It was an oddly careful and tender gesture.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Pogo's eyes were wide as saucers. It was then that she remembered that he was fluent in several languages. Maybe he'd heard something important, something that made everything make sense. She desperately wished that she had that gift too. Then she might have been able to do something besides listen to the woman babble without understanding anything.

"Я настолько рад, что я шел с Клондайком, он хорош, но он может быть немного поспешным иногда. Я только не могу верить..." the woman said, smiling sadly, "…моя сладкая маленькая девочка."

All Vanya could do was stare at her. The woman cocked her head and let out a slightly bitter laugh.

"Вы не говорите слово русского языка, не так ли?"

Vanya blinked. The woman shook her head.

"Наилучшим образом, множество времени зафиксировать то более поздно. Oгорченный о этом, но действительно необходимо. беспокойство, оно shouldn' ушибленный t… слишком много."

The woman maneuvered her hand until it was cradling the back of Vanya's head. With a sudden motion she twisted her hand. Vanya heard a crack and felt a sharp pain, and then all there was was darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

Roulette sighed and gently laid Vanya's head back on the tile floor.

"You know, you could've just turned on your translator collar," Slots pointed out as she walked casually up to Roulette and Vanya, "I don't think they teach the Umbrellas Russian."

"Я могу быть настолько забывчивым иногда," sighed Roulette as she started to fiddle with her collar, "Но с другой стороны, возможно лучше, что я сделал."

Slots cocked her head.

"Why's that?"

"It could've been quite a shock," Roulette said casually, "Klondike!"

Klondike strolled over, scooping up his dice as he did so.

"Yes?" he asked as he shoved them in his pocket.

"Carry her if you will. And be careful."

Nodding his head Klondike reached out and started to pick Vanya up. He'd do a good job. He was always the strongest in the family, the one that could take the most next to Roulette and Poker. He'd been the first to pull it together once his parents were killed after all.

Roulette rose to her feet. So far it had gone rather well. You just got in there then got out. Simple, yes, unrefined, yes, but also effective.

"Let's clear out," Roulette said.

"Don't you think we should kill the monkey?" asked Slots, gesturing to Pogo with her gun.

Roulette eyed him critically. He wasn't moving, the paralysis still held him still. However, he was staring at her oddly. Vanya might not have understood what she'd said, but it was obvious that he had. She put a finger to her lips and tapped them. It was an odd habit, but one she always did when she was thinking hard.

By himself he didn't look like a threat. He was just a chimpanzee after all, and the Hargreeves baby sitter to boot. He knew though…then again, the news was going to get out sooner or later. So there wasn't any point in actually killing him. It would just waste their precious time on an already tight schedule if she did.

However, there was something familiar about this particular chimp. She cocked her head and looked at him. As she did, something flashed in her eyes. Chimps basically looked the same to her, but she recognized this one.

"Yes," she said, "Do that. But do it quickly. We're on a time schedule. We've only got five minutes until Blackjack and Baccarat arrive."

"Ah well. Blackjack isn't known for his punctuality," commented Slots harshly as she fit the silencer on her gun.

Slots' and Blackjack's rivalry was well-known among Monte Carlo. It was near destructive and had always puzzled Roulette.

"Why do you hate him?" sighed Roulette.

"He's my cousin," replied Slots without hesitation.

"Klondike's your cousin, and you don't hate him."

"Blackjack's my **second **cousin," Slots said irritably, "And that's completely different."

"It's so sad when families don't get along," Roulette said, "And it's also sad about the second cousin bit. When Baccarat hears about this you're going to be in trouble."

"Ah, I get along well with my **other **second cousin and you know it," smiled Slots as she completed putting the silencer and the gun together.

A small cough made both women turn around.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Klondike said, not sounding sorry at all, "This girl here…she's not exactly heavy…but she's not a feather pillow if you know what I mean. So if we could just finish this up and get to the chopper…"

Roulette nodded and waved her hand dismissively.

"I understand. Slots-"

"Way ahead of you," she assured as she leveled to gun to Pogo's forehead.

Everything that happened next went in slow motion. An airport bench was flung at them, something that Slots just barely happened to avoid. Roulette whipped around, and her lips curled into a sneer. It just had to happen, didn't it? The just couldn't play along, could they?

"If you would kindly refrain from killing anyone," Spaceboy said, "And if you would put my sister down."

Roulette threw her hands up in the air, covertly glancing at her watch as she did so. She had time for a little game, and perhaps a deterrent. She shared a covert glance with Klondike and Slots, who both nodded. She spun a wheel on one of her bracelets.

"Pick a number," she said, venomously sweet, "Zero through thirty-six. Then we'll figure out whether we want to kill anyone or not, and if we want to leave her here or not. Fifteen seconds."

"What?"

Space looked at her as Séance and Rumor joined him, panting heavily. They both looked at Roulette, whose hands had slid down to her hips. She looked at her bracelet and smiled.

"I'm so sorry," she said, "Zero isn't the number it landed on. Hope you didn't bet the farm."

Space had just enough time to look confused before she detached the wheel and threw it at him. It clinked softly on the floor and Space stared at it. Then Roulette calmly pressed a button on her other bracelet. The explosion was deafening and released a thick red gas.

"Let's roll," she said to her companions.

A tentacle hit her in the stomach and sent her hurtling against a wall. If she hadn't managed to catch herself in time then it would've been quite painful. Ah yes, the Umbrella bastards did use distractions and feints. They just used the same sure-fire techniques over and over again, no risks. Well, they'd come against the wrong people if they wanted to pull shit like that.

She looked up in time to see Slots shoot at Horror, blood spurting out where he was hit. The tentacle recoiled, only to be replaced by another one. Roulette got to her feet just as Kraken threw a knife at Klondike. Klondike almost immediately threw Vanya out of the way. He then rolled and gave Kraken a low kick to the ground.

The rest of the Academy was still dealing with the blinding smoke. That meant that Roulette was being largely ignored. She could've finished it if she wanted to. However, if she knew her family like she thought she did, than they'd prefer to gamble for a little bit.

She decided to look for other ways to amuse herself. Slowly she started doing calculations in her head. Spaceboy, the Rumor, the Séance, the Horror, the Kraken, Vanya, and Pogo. Oh, they were all here, except Hargreeves. With him it would've been a full house. However, he wasn't there. How…inopportune.


	9. Chapter 9

Klondike seemed to have no end of dice. They were also trick weapons. If they were just normal types of trick weapons, then Kraken probably could've dealt with it. However, these were dice that concealed hidden blades, poisonous gases, and at least five hundred other ways to die. All in all it was incredibly ridiculous. Kraken would've burst out laughing if it hadn't been for;

A: He was fighting the bastard.

B: He'd actually gotten hit by several of the bastard's blades and was bleeding badly in several places.

C: The same bastard had tried to kidnap Vanya and for that, if nothing else, he was going to make him pay.

Picking up a convenient airport trash can he threw it at Klondike. He dodged, but not well enough to keep his balance. Using this opportunity Kraken smashed his fist into his face. Klondike staggered backward, bleeding from his lip. He glared at Kraken and spit out a tooth.

He managed to catch the next punch Kraken threw at him, but he didn't manage to catch the kick. He bent double and Kraken head-butted him for good measure. Klondike's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he and slumped forwards. From the way that he wasn't moving Kraken could only assume that he was unconscious.

Kraken looked over at Horror, who seemed to be doing alright fighting Slots. She was agile enough to avoid his tentacles, but she seemed to be having trouble hurting him. He noticed that her gun was far out of her reach, and he silently congratulated Horror on that.

The rest of his siblings were still being stopped by the red cloud. However, he could see that it was thinning slightly. Soon they wouldn't have to worry about it. That was good. He really couldn't be bothered with them right now. There was something much more important to take care of.

He crouched down near Vanya and quickly checked her vitals. If that fucker had hurt her…however, she didn't seem to be hurt, just unconscious.

"Vanya," he muttered, shaking her slightly, "Wake-up."

Vanya's eyelids fluttered open. Squinting she tried to focus.

"Diego…? What're you-?"

Instead of answering Kraken breathed a sigh of relief and kissed her on the forehead.

"Long story," he said, "But I've got to get you out of here."

As much as he hated Hargreeves, there was one thing he agreed with him on; Vanya didn't belong in the line of fire.

"Can you walk?"

"I think so…"

Kraken shook his head.

"Not good enough," he said, and was about to pick her up when he heard:

"I strongly recommend that you take your hands off her before something very terrible happens."

Turning around he saw Roulette glaring at him. What the hell was up with this woman? Still fixing him with an angry look she started to take off one of her earrings. Remembering what a bracelet of this woman could do, he quickly launched himself forward. Whatever she had in mind couldn't be good.

Events seemed almost to go in slow motion. Apparently Roulette had been expecting him to go after her. With one hand she took the earring off, and with the other she pulled out a knife from the inside of her sleeve. Kraken barely had time to register this before she sidestepped him and slipped the knife into the left eyehole of his mask.

Kraken jerked backward and the knife came out. He didn't scream, and he didn't shout. For that to happen his brain would've had to send a signal to tell him to do that. As it was there was far too much pain for him to even think coherently. Dropping to his knees he clutched his left eye with his hand, trying to stop the bleeding. Blood dripped out between his fingertips and pooled onto the floor.

"DIEGO!" he heard Vanya scream.

.

.

.

Roulette was feeling highly satisfied. However, she was also a little confused. Vanya seemed very upset. Frowning Roulette thought back to when Kraken had first come into the room. He'd gone for Klondike, who'd been holding Vanya first, instead of Slots who was closer. Then the kiss and her reaction… Slowly Roulette put two and two together to a displeasing solution.

In any case, enough was enough. It was time to give them a taste of what they could really do. Calmly she started taking off her earring as the smoke cloud dissolved enough to allow Space to charge at Slots. Gracefully Slots leaped over him and kicked him in the back of the head. Good thing she'd told them to go easy on them if they met them early.

Jingling her earring slightly she heard a faint buzzing start. Oh yes, a faint buzzing to her, but she was under the impression it was a good deal more to the Umbrella Academy. The way that they were holding their heads and screaming might've been one clue. Blood started to trickle out their ears before Roulette switched them off.

She stepped over them as they writhed in aftershocks of the pain. It was a glorious sight, but one she had to depart from.

"Come now," she said, motioning to the other two.

Slots frowned at her.

"But we can kill them now!"

Roulette shook her head.

"You really don't pay attention to Poker's lectures," she sighed angrily, "First of all this emitter only lasts for two minutes. Second of all it's designed to target the special gene which only 43 people in the world, now a good deal **less **then that might I add, carry. If I keep it on for one more minute, then everyone in this room carrying the gene will be dead. Think about this carefully."

Slot's gaze wandered over to Vanya.

"Exactly," Roulette said, "And Klondike? Don't drop her again."

"I'm sorry," apologized Klondike as he knocked her out again and picked her up, "This guy just came at me with this knife and…I guess I panicked a little. I couldn't reach my dice…"

"Oh yes," Roulette gazed with distaste at Kraken, "**Him**. Yes…there will be time…later."

As if to punctuate this she threw a strong kick at his head, aimed at the left side of his face. He groaned and she smiled, knowing that he'd probably never be able to use that eye again. It was so tempting to just kill him now…but no…like she'd told Klondike, there would be time later. Roulette took a deep breath and turned back to Klondike.

"Just don't do it again."

Klondike nodded as a loud humming started up. Smiling Roulette gestured towards the door.

"It appears Blackjack and Baccarat are here," she said, "A little late, as Slots said. I'll have to talk to them about that. Now hurry up you two."

Slots and Klondike walked ahead, but Roulette lingered for a few seconds to stare at the writhing members of the Umbrella Academy.

"Oh, and by the way," she said, "The number it landed on was thirty-two."

Then she turned away and followed Slots and Klondike out the door, out onto the runway, and into the waiting helicopter.


	10. Chapter 10

"That hurts!"

Mom shook her head as she patiently used Hargreeves' medical machines to heal her battered 'children' up. The hospital ward was her least favorite place to be in, and obviously it was Séance's least favorite place too.

"It hurts because you're moving around so much," she admonished gently.

Séance glared at her. Apparently the red cloud had had some sort of poisonous gas in it that caused their veins to swell, and occasionally burst. Space had managed to get away with very little damage, and so had Rumor. Séance had gotten hit hard though, very hard. Not quite as hard as he made out, but he'd never been one to suffer in silence.

"They should've warned us there was stuff in there," he groused, "I mean, I thought it was just a stupid smokescreen!"

"Yeah," said Rumor sarcastically, "Next time they should shout; Warning! Poison coming your way!"

"Live and learn," said Space dryly, "Ben got shot several times. You're not so bad off Klaus."

"Pah!" snapped Séance, "He heals fast, don't you Ben?"

Horror gave a wry smile. Mom shook her head. Yes, because of the fact that it was an interdimensional creature that gave Horror his powers he really did heal faster. He rarely needed the help of the machines.

"Well," Space said tersely, "Just count yourself better off then Diego."

Everyone's gaze drifted over to Kraken, who was lying unconscious on a medical bed. The blood had been mopped from his face long ago, but there were also several other lacerations that he'd been gently bleeding from. Mom had patiently healed those up, but she wasn't worried about those wounds.

No, it had been his left eye that had worried her. She looked at him critically. Earlier she'd run the machine over his eye. The healing hadn't been half of what she'd hoped it to be. She'd repeated the process several times. Due to her persistence the tissue had slowly repaired itself, but the lense didn't come back. It was very odd the way it had healed. It had turned into this black gaping piece of soft flesh that had once been blue and white.

It appeared that no matter what she did there was no putting his eye back to the way it used to be. How completely dreadful.

"All right," Séance conceded, "Maybe he got it just a **teensy **bit worse then I did."

"Stop being such a drama king," snapped Rumor.

"I'm not a drama king," he said indignantly, "I'm a drama **queen **thank you very much."

Mom just shook her head.

"Anyway," said Horror tentatively, "Anyone know who they were?"

"Not yet," shrugged Space, "But then again, only the ones who are into big gestures get brought to our attention. If they're just out for a profit then it's no surprise we don't know about them."

"Yeah, but if they're not into big gestures then how come they kidnapped Vanya?" argued Rumor.

Ah yes, something else to worry about. When the members of the Academy had been able to get up and move again, they'd already left with Vanya. Mom worried about her little girl, and she wondered how they were going to get her back.

"Vanya was conveniently close by?" Space said, "I don't know why they picked her."

A groan from Kraken alerted him that he'd woken up. Rubbing his eye experimentally he got to his feet.

"You're awake!" Mom said happily.

He nodded at her once before turning to the rest of his siblings.

"So," he said shortly, "They got Vanya."

"We couldn't move," Rumor said sympathetically.

"Unimportant. All it means is that now we have to get after those bastards," he stated, looking at the rest of the group, "Do you think we can use the tracker machines? I'm not one-hundred percent sure how they work, but Pogo probably knows. We can ask him when he comes to. Or has he already?"

Space looked at him and shook his head.

"Are you serious?" he asked, "Have you seen the condition we're in? Half of us are still bleeding!"

"He's right," Mom said, "You just lost your eye. Maybe if you could wait a little while-"

"Forget about my fucking eye! My eye's not important right now," growled Kraken, "This is serious!"

"Well I'm sorry we can't get up automatically and do everything at once," snapped Space, "So sorry."

"And to think, you actually used to have some energy in you, you stupid monkey."

"If you haven't noticed," said Space, making a wide gesture, "We're in no condition to fight an ant let alone a group of gambling addicts! Why do you even care about this?"

"They've got Vanya!" Kraken snapped, "That's reason enough."

Space folded his arms.

"For you maybe. But not enough for the rest of us. She's just going to have to wait. The team comes first."

Fists clenched Kraken glared at Space with an intense rage.

"Luther," Rumor said, her voice low, "I don't think you're thinking this through…"

"You're fucking right he's not," said Kraken, livid.

Nervously Mom stepped in between them.

"Now boys," she said softly, "I don't think that there's any need for that. We'll get you healed up and then you can go and rescue Vanya in a few hours and then everything-"

"YOU'RE TELLING ME TO WAIT? THEY COULD'VE FUCKING KILLED HER ALREADY AND **I **WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW!" shouted Kraken.

"That's…not going to happen."

Everyone in the room turned to see Pogo walk in, looking tired.

"What do you mean?" asked Kraken sharply.

Pogo pulled up a chair and sat down.

"The woman…Roulette was it? She won't hurt Vanya."

"How do you know that?" snapped Kraken.

"It's…a…it's a long story," sighed Pogo, "**Very **long."


	11. Chapter 11

"When should she wake up?" asked Baccarat.

Vanya was lying unconscious on something that resembled a dentist's chair. Of course, most dentist chairs didn't have thick leather restraints on them. They probably also didn't have bloodstains and nail scratches that completely ruined the upholstery, even if it was just vinyl. Well, not the better ones anyway.

"Soon enough," Poker said as he injected something into Vanya's arm, "I'm not sure just how that's going to go though."

Baccarat cocked his head.

"Roulette's been planning this for far too long for anything to go wrong," he said.

"Oh, my sister's a genius," Poker said as he put the syringe onto a tray, "There's no mistaking that. However, there are many factors to consider here. Too many independent variables can really fuck things up."

"She certainly is clever. It seems to run in the family, doesn't it?" smirked Baccarat.

Poker smiled to himself. Yes, he was the epitome of the mad scientist, wasn't he? He even wore the white coat. Albeit, the coat had card patterns on it, but it was still a white coat. Poker believed in a certain amount of professionalism, and the white coat was essential.

Professionalism also meant keeping a pristine, snow white lab. Alright, so maybe the lab wasn't so pristine all of the time. However, if test subjects killed each other and spread blood all over the place then he couldn't help that, now could he? So every here and there were a few pinkish stains where the cleaning crew had failed to erase them completely.

If he hadn't gone into being a mad scientist then maybe he wouldn't have to worry about that sort of thing. He hadn't even thought about worrying about something like that when he was going through school. After all, crime hadn't been his first choice as a career. Poker always figured that he'd be a super-soldier formula searcher working for the government. Well, he was doing that right now, but he certainly wasn't working for the government.

Working for his family crime ring had been unexpected, but it had certainly proved lucrative. He'd never imagined this kind of profit. He'd also never imagined branching out all by themselves, but once again it had proved incredibly profitable. They probably wouldn't have branched out at all if not for…for…

Well, they couldn't dwell on the past anymore. They simply couldn't afford it. And soon, very soon, it would all be complete. Then there would be no **need **to look back on the sorrows of the past. There would be no more need to mourn for what they had lost. Yes…vengeance was the great comforter, wasn't it?

It was then that he noticed that Baccarat was staring at him, apparently still expecting an answer.

"It probably does," he agreed, "But it's a good thing she's so cunning, or we wouldn't be alive today. Any of us."

"Definitely not," said Baccarat, "She pulled me out of the remains of a smoldering house. Without her there then I definitely wouldn't have reached my seventh birthday."

Poker put down the syringe on a stainless steel try and removed his gloves.

"She is a life saver," he agreed.

"I'm glad you realize this," Roulette said as she strolled into the room, "Otherwise I'd have to call you ungrateful."

"Ah, speak of the devil," he said.

She smiled at him, and then looked down at Vanya.

"How much time?" she asked.

"Only a few minutes," he answered, checking his watch, "Baccarat and I can vacate the room if that's want you'd like. Or would you rather us be here for emotional support?"

"You think of everything," she smiled, "But I think I'd better do this alone. I don't want to overwhelm her after all.

He gestured to Baccarat, and the two of them left the room. Yes, they could all put the past behind them soon.

.

.

.

Vanya woke up, feeling as groggy as hell. She also felt like she'd just been hit by a semi. She groaned as she tried to figure out her bearings, and possibly what had happened in the past few hours. She'd been at the airport…check…there'd been a fight…check…Kraken…oh God.

What had happened to him? All she could remember was that noise and getting knocked out after he got knifed in the eye. Was he alright? Was he…? No, she wasn't going to even entertain the prospect he could be dead. She just had to figure out where she was and then-

"I'm sorry we had to hurt you. But we were in a bit of a hurry."

Turning her head Vanya saw the woman from the airport. Had she been kidnapped? No, that was something that happened to her **superhero **siblings. That shit didn't happen to her…but apparently it had. She glared angrily at the woman, trying to mask her fear.

"Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor, to set its struggling passion free from pride, and vainer ties dissever," the woman quoted.

"What was that?" Vanya asked as she struggled to keep her breath even.

"Oh…just a poem," said the woman, "Don't worry about it, I'll explain later."

Trying not to reveal the large knot of anxiety welling in her she snapped;

"And who the fuck are you supposed to be?"

To her surprise the woman looked hurt.

"I…I can only assume you said that because you don't understand what's going on here," she said softly, walking up to Vanya with a sad smile on her face, "Otherwise I know you wouldn't say something like that."

Confused and more then a little scared Vanya watched as the woman fiddled with her earrings.

"Sorry," she said, her mind working at a million miles a minute, "But I tend to get a little upset when people kidnap me."

The woman looked shocked.

"You haven't been kidnapped!"

"And what, pray tell," she choked out, "is going on if I haven't?"

Once again there was that sad smile.

"This was never a **kidnapping **mission. It was actually a rescue mission," she said, "You see…I'm your mother."


	12. Chapter 12

Pogo cleared his throat.

"Now," he said, "You…you can't let Sir Reginald know that I told you this. You have to promise. He…he…well I'm not sure what exactly he'd do to me, but I know that it would be quite painful."

"Like I'd talk to him," snorted Kraken.

"Maybe we…yes," sighed Space.

Mom pressed the off switch on the back of her head so she wouldn't record anything. That was the same thing as a yes for her.

"Yes," Rumor answered.

"This probably isn't a good idea…but alright," conceded Horror.

"Why the fuck not?" cackled Séance.

Sighing Pogo folded his hands together.

"You all know how you were born…or at least you have an idea."

Rumor nodded. Everyone did. Hargreeves had told them about the forty-three children with the mysterious births and amazing powers many times.

"However, there are many things that you don't know. Back then I was just an aide working for Hargreeves, his first ponigdae experimentation," said Pogo, "But I was brought along on many of his trips to find you. The things I saw…"

He paused and rubbed his temples.

"I…I'm getting off of the subject. What you don't know is how many of you were…acquired," continued Pogo, "Some of you he found in orphanages, abandoned. But…not all of you were found that way. For many of you he had Ajihad and I shuffle through old hospital records. That was because some of the mothers…decided that they wanted to keep their children even if they were…anomalies."

Rumor looked at Pogo like he'd just told them that the sky was purple. Their mothers hadn't wanted them. Hargreeves had told them that time and time again. Or was it just one more lie? Apparently it was.

"None of them were terribly resolute," admitted Pogo, "which they might've been if they'd known what was going to happen to their children once they gave them away. However, don't judge them too harshly. You must keep in mind that almost all of them were single women, some even teenagers. Still, from what they said they had thought initially to go it alone and raise their children themselves. But…he…he offered them money."

"Bitches," commented Séance.

"Klaus," Pogo said sharply.

"No, he's right," said Kraken sarcastically and with a touch of bitterness, "Being sold is so much better then being put in an orphanage. Just how much do people sell their children for these days?"

"Seventeen million dollars," Pogo said blankly, "and that was simply the minimum amount. Now some of these women came from incredibly poor households. Some of them already had other children and were unemployed…once again a bit off subject though."

She felt like she was going to throw up. All of her life Rumor had believed that she had simply been abandoned. Now it turned out that she had probably been sold. Instead of being unwanted, her mother had sought to make a profit off of her. That was worse, much worse in her mind. Despite what Pogo was saying she found herself judging her mother hellishly harshly.

Rumor wished that she didn't know this. She wished that Pogo had never told them. She just wanted to go up to her room and forget all about it.

"Look," Kraken said, "This is all very depressing but what does it have to do with Vanya and these freaks with the checkers and the dice and the cards and-"

"I'm coming to that," said Pogo, "If you'd just let me finish."

Kraken glared at him, but said nothing.

"Good," Pogo said, "Not all of them accepted his offer. But…he arranged things so…it's nothing I'm proud of…"

Pogo's voice trailed off, lost somewhere in memory. After a minute he shook his head and continued.

"Now there was one mother who was a good deal more…**resolute **then the others. She was married and had a fair set-up. As it turned out, her husband and she couldn't have children. They viewed their child as a miracle, and they refused to let it go, even for millions of dollars."

"Hargreeves must've been totally pissed," smirked Séance.

Pogo rubbed his hands together nervously.

"Sir Reginald was more then that. He was livid. It was the last child to collect. The other thirty six just…it was like they'd fallen off the face of the planet. So he knew that he'd only have six if he couldn't get this one. He threatened them with everything under the sun. She wouldn't budge. She had military connections in Russia, where they were from, and she figured that they were quite safe. She just…wouldn't give up. This…this woman was Vanya's mother."

There was a shocked silence.

"He just couldn't get her. So he decided to resort to…decidedly more illegal means then he had before."

"Like?" Kraken snapped.

Pogo looked ashamed.

"Like I said I'm not proud of what happened," he said, "and I'm not proud of the fact that I never told anyone. But…he sent a few people in there and…they killed the woman's parents, and her cousins and their spouses who happened to be staying there. There were some children in there too that they never found. It was a family reunion, and the baby's parents were out…but Hargreeves said no witnesses. So they killed them and…they just took her…"

Once again there was a stunned silence.

"It was never spoken of again," he said, "But…from what Russian I could understand…it appears that she's returned for her child."

Looking over at Kraken she saw that he was struggling to comprehend it all.

"Then…then…why not just tell her and take her away?" Spaceboy said wonderingly, "Why go through all this…this…**this** and do all this other stuff in the process? Why just kidnap her though? Wouldn't she want revenge on Hargreeves?"

"I don't know what she wants besides Va-" Pogo started.

Red lights turned on around the mansion. Everyone's head shot up as they looked around. The sign specially installed for the occasion; VILLAIN THREAT MESSAGE had lit up.

"Pogo, go get Hargreeves. It looks like we're going to find out what they want soon," Space said, "aren't we?"


	13. Chapter 13

Roulette finished putting the extra layer of dark red lipstick on. It did to put on a show, and she wanted it to be a good show. She'd been waiting for this for fifteen years after all. She heard someone behind her clear their throats. Only one person in Monte Carlo did that.

"Yes Blackjack?" she asked casually.

"They've picked up our frequency," he said, "And they've sent one back. It looks like they're willing to talk."

She tossed the tube of lipstick away.

"That was fast."

Blackjack shrugged.

"I'm not sure about this Madame. I've got the channel poised to open though."

"Good boy," she smiled as she got up, "You and Slots should be positioned behind me. Just for a show of solidarity, that there's more then just three of us. Oh, and do try not to strangle her while they're watching."

He gave a wry smile.

"I'll try."

"Better then nothing," she said, her heels clicking on the polished floor, "Has Poker told you of Vanya's status?"

"He said that he hasn't had to drug her anymore," he said, following her closely, "If I may, it sounds like she didn't take to the announcement too well."

"The more she thinks about it the more it'll make sense," sighed Roulette, "It can't be easy hearing that you've just met your mother after twenty years, can it?"

Blackjack shrugged again.

"I just wish I could show her father," sighed Roulette.

She took a deep breath, trying to force back tears. Blackjack put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"We're going to get the bastard who did it," he assured her, "And the bastards who helped him."

She straightened.

"Yes, quite right. Now let's get this thing moving."

.

.

.

"Good of you to have us," Roulette said on the other side of the screen, "With any luck Monte Carlo will be able to finish this discussion with your neatly."

"It's not like we had a choice," replied Spaceboy coolly.

Roulette grinned and tapped the side of her sunglasses.

"Of course you did. You just picked the more **noble **way."

She used the word noble like a person would use disgusting.

"Something I highly doubt you'd know anything about," Space shot back.

She pursed her lips. Space was about to add something when he felt Kraken push past him and snap;

"Just tell us where Vanya is!"

He saw Roulette turn her attention from Space to him. Her lip curled in a sneer.

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd interrupt our little chat. You're hotheaded…I saw that much from your fight with Klondike. I'm so **glad **your eye healed."

Once again she took a normal word and said it differently. On her lips glad sounded like furious. Space saw Kraken almost instinctively reach for the eye patch he'd put over his left eye. Impatiently Space pushed Kraken firmly out of the way.

"Why did you contact us?" he asked, "And why are you bothering with any of this? You could've just come and explained things to Vanya if that's what you wanted."

She looked shocked.

"Yes, we already know Vanya's your daughter."

Roulette continued looking surprised for a minute, before resuming smiling.

"Having my daughter back **is **wonderful," she said, "But that's not all I want. I want a good many things and, before you say it, none of them is money. As for why I contacted you…well I want to tell you a little story. It's about a husband, a wife, and her brother."

"Like I already said. We know that Vanya's your daughter," repeated Space.

"It's a good thing I wasn't going to tell that story then. This is a different one," she said, "It's about what happened afterwards. You see, while they were mourning the loss of their family, the woman's brother was going to college. He was very clever and was given many awards. Now all of those honors, they'd been good but they were really only a stepping stone to what he planned later in life."

"The military recruitment that happened in his third year had served him well. Working with Russian scientists for the next five years taught him a good deal about weapon making, which was where he realized what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He'd enjoyed the work and had had many other honors and promotions showered on him. Yet, that was, just like college, a mere stepping stone."

"He hadn't been quite sure what it was he was aiming for though," continued Roulette, "Not for a good couple of years. It wasn't until he'd met one Dr. Terminal on a vacation to Finland that he realized what it was. That had been a man after his own heart, quite literally until he realized that my brother was more useful alive then dead. Finally he'd found a way to practice science without any of those 'moral restrictions'."

A shock wave rippled through the Academy. Dr. Terminal? That bastard was messing things up from beyond the grave.

"Of course he'd wanted to have others share in his good fortune. So he'd invited his sister and her husband over. It was good work. Both of them were excellent fighters and the pay was quite high, they needed it to support their orphaned nephews and nieces. Not to mention it helped distract them from their losses. He felt a good deal better having his cunning sister working along with him, not to mention her tough husband. It had all been good, so very good."

She stopped, and her smile turned bitter.

"Then one day some so-called 'heroes' raid Dr. Terminal's laboratories. Now, this woman and her husband weren't particularly good people. But…they did draw the line somewhere. Her husband wasn't willing to kill children. When he saw one of these 'heroes' he realized that they couldn't be more then eleven. That was roughly the same age his daughter would be."

"He didn't see them as threats," she continued, "He saw them as children. So he fired halfheartedly at them, making sure to miss. He talked to me over the radio, telling me what he was doing. He was just trying to scare them off, and then he turns around to see one of them behind him. The idea that the rest of them were a distraction didn't even cross his mind. He just lowered his gun. The boy **was** eleven after all."

She leaned in a little closer to the camera.

"And do you know what that little fucker does? He stabs my husband in the throat. Then he takes the knife out, and proceeds to go on murdering the other guards. Those were people I knew too. My brother and I just barely managed to get out. But I remembered. I remembered that little bastard. He'd be about twenty now, and I assume he still uses a knife. Sound familiar?"

Almost involuntarily, every eye in the room drifted towards Kraken.


	14. Chapter 14

Kraken tried to conjure up the memory that Roulette was speaking about. Nothing came to mind though. Sure, he knew that he'd killed a few guards at Dr. Terminal's laboratories. They all had. Even Séance probably had, which was quite an accomplishment because at that time in his life he'd once gotten on a foot stool and shrieked at the sight of a mouse.

It was probably just his luck that the one he'd killed had had a psychopathic wife.

"I think that this has gone far enough."

Everyone turned to see Hargreeves enter the room with an air of arrogant authority. Kraken clenched his fists.

"_**Hargreeves**_," Roulette said, her voice dripping with hatred.

He turned back to the screen, where the three members of Monte Carlo glared at Hargreeves like he was the sum of all the loathsome things in the world. Then again, he was.

"I'm glad to see that you took the trouble to find out my name Mrs. Ivanov," he said, "and this does seem like it took a good deal of planning. But I will remind you that you're doing this all for a girl who's been nothing but a disappointment, especially considering all the trouble I went through to get her, and a husband who couldn't even defend himself against .02. Have you seen his knife work? It's incredibly sloppy."

He saw a snarl form on Roulette's lips.

"He was my **husband**. And Vanya's my **daughter**. Someone like you wouldn't understand this. I don't think you understand anything that doesn't have to do with your own personal gain."

"Look," Kraken said, "Let's just get to the point. What do you want us to give you so that you'll let Vanya go?"

Roulette looked confused.

"I have no intention of doing that," she said, "What made you think I'd do that? She's my daughter. I want her well out of this, so of course I'm not letting her out there with **you**. Besides, braid hair, watch movies, you know, things like that. I've got twenty years to catch up to you know."

Kraken clenched his fists.

"Come on," Rumor said, "If it makes you feel any better, they've probably already killed her."

Kraken's head snapped up. He felt like wrapping his hands around Rumor's neck and shutting her up for good.

"Excuse me?" Roulette asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I don't buy this whole mother-daughter bonding bullshit," she said, "You're probably just yanking our chain on this and you've killed her hours ago."

"I'm her mother! Her only parent!"

"I've been to far too many domestic disputes for that to mean shit," Rumor said.

As she said that she shifted her body slightly so that she stood at an awkward angle, making some of her invisible to the camera. It was from that angle that she winked at Kraken. It was then that Kraken realized what Rumor was trying to do. Maybe she was smarter then he gave her credit for.

"Besides," finished Rumor, "They're villains. She probably killed her **because **she's her daughter."

Glaring at Rumor through narrow eyes, Roulette beckoned Blackjack closer. She whispered to him for a few minutes. He whispered back and disappeared off screen.  
"You'll see I'm right," she said coldly.

"Personally I couldn't care less. Now could you please stop with all the theatrics and just tell us what you want?" yawned Hargreeves, "Because I'm a very busy man and I haven't got all day."

It was then that Kraken realized for the first time that Hargreeves wasn't just a bastard towards them. He was just a bastard in general.

"I want all of you dead," she said, losing her temper, "And when I say all, I mean all. That includes Hargreeves and the chimp. I'll give you twenty-four hours to settle your affairs, because I'm generous. Then all of you are going to come to 115th Elm street, and we'll kill you in whatever manner we deem most pleasurable to inflict. And just so you know we're serious-"

Slots pulled a briefcase out from under the table. She opened it, revealing five nuclear devices.

"-if you don't we'll nuke the city from here to hell," she said, "After that we'll just use the other four for our own personal enjoyment. Your choice."

There was a very pregnant pause. Hargreeves gave a short laugh.

"The Umbrella Academy doesn't negotiate with terrorists."

"We'll give you some time to think about it," Roulette said patronizingly, "After all, you've all had very stressful day."

"I doubt we will," said Hargreeves.

As soon as Hargreeves finished speaking Blackjack came back into the room. He leaned over and whispered quietly to Roulette. She nodded, looking rather smug. Then she turned back to the screen and smiled triumphantly. Just as Kraken started wondering what she was on about **now**, Vanya came into the room.

She looked sort of dazed, perhaps she'd been drugged. There was also a rather nasty bruise forming near her left temple. Other then that she looked fine. Her hands were uncuffed, which Kraken took as a good sign. Maybe the fact that she was Roulette's daughter offered some sort of protection. As she looked tiredly around the room, she locked eyes with Kraken.

He moved forward towards the glass of the TV screen. Kraken could see Vanya standing close to it on her side. She seemed so near, like he could simply reach out and touch her. Subconsciously he leaned forward little by little until his fingertips were pressed up against the glass screen. He knew that it was silly and irrational. Yet, he really didn't care. The only thing he cared about was that he wanted to be a little nearer to her.

Kraken's eyes were still slightly open as he increased the pressure on his fingertips, letting his gaze rest on them for a minute. This was how he discovered that Vanya was doing the same thing on her side. He even thought that he could feel some of her warmth coming faintly through the glass. He was probably just imagining it, but still… Kraken didn't want it to end, didn't want to be reminded that the one person in the world that he needed was in mortal peril.

Close as they were Kraken couldn't help but notice the small tear that slipped down her cheek. At that moment Kraken would've given anything for the glass to disappear even for a few moments. All he wanted was for some scraps of time to take her in his arms and kiss her, protect her from it all. As a second tear joined the first he was overwhelmed with the urge to save her somehow and rip apart the bastards who were hurting her. Despite his wishes the glass remained.

"Now that that's over," Roulette said, and Kraken heard her voice as if from far away, "We'll see you in tomorrow."

With that, the image left, leaving Kraken feeling more bereft and furious then ever before.


	15. Chapter 15

"I think that went well," Roulette said reflectively, "Slots, take the nukes back. Blackjack, accompany Vanya and I back to the holding cell."

Vanya allowed herself to be led out. Apparently Poker's drug was still working; otherwise Roulette doubted that she'd be so docile. Roulette looked at her uncomfortably. She didn't feel like it was quite right to drug her daughter. Then again, she'd had such a violent reaction when Roulette announced her identity though, so it was made necessary.

At least the drug hadn't made her completely senseless. It was just like she was toned down. Of course, the tears were alarming.

"You're crying," Roulette observed.

"I know," Vanya answered back, sounding as though she were far away.

"Oh I see. You're upset about him, but you're not upset about the fact that you're in a relationship with the man who murdered your father?" she asked coldly.

Blackjack started, but Roulette held up a halting hand. Vanya simply blinked in response. Yes…it wasn't like the drug had made her incapable of recognizing when a good time to remain quiet would be. However, the silence was just as poignant as any answer was.

"I see," Roulette said shortly as they arrived at their destination, "Blackjack, fetch Poker. But tell him to knock first, but not to come in unless I specifically ask him."

Blackjack looked oddly at Vanya before nodding in agreement. As he closed the door behind him, Roulette turned around. Vanya had already taken a seat. So it appeared her comprehension was focusing on a better level. They'd have to give her some more of the drug later. Roulette pulled up a chair and stared at her daughter.

"You love him?" she asked.

"None of your concern."

They'd definitely have to drug her some more.

"I'm your mother," she said, "It **is **my concern."

"I don't think you are."

"Really?" Roulette said, taking a small syringe out of her side pocket.

"I think you're just trying to get me into a false sense of security," she said blandly, "You probably should've picked someone a bit more important though."

Roulette put on what she hoped was a comforting smile. She was so new to this motherhood business after all.

"I **am **your mother. Do you want me to prove it?"

Without waiting for an answer Roulette took her sunglasses off. Vanya started slightly, and Roulette knew she had reason too. Her daughter was her spitting image after all. Well, maybe not exactly. Roulette had longer hair and her features were more plastic then soft, but those were minor things really.

Getting up she walked over to Vanya and slipped the needle under her skin. There was no resistance. The drug hadn't worn off that much yet, thank goodness.

"So yes," she said, "Your relationships are my concern. If nothing else doesn't it bother you that your boyfriend killed a man at eleven and probably didn't lose any sleep over it? He was your father too."

"…it's not like he was innocent," Vanya said uncertainly.

"Who is?" shrugged Roulette, "Think about this for a moment. Kraken was **eleven**. He should've been playing with _Power Rangers_, not out crime fighting."

"That's Hargreeves' fault."

"He's a bastard," agreed Roulette, "No doubt about it. But you can't blame all of your problems on him. Some have to stem from yourself, from your inner being. It's not all about environment. And from what I've heard about this Kraken, and believe me, we've done our research, he's incredibly violent. How long do you think it'd be before that started showing up in your relationship? Really, it's better this way."

She saw Vanya hesitate with her answer.

"Or has it already?"

Vanya remained silent. Roulette shook her head.

"Ah, I see. You think he loves you, don't you?"

Once again there was no answer.

"He's never said it though, has he?"

Silence. Roulette smiled. Now she was getting somewhere. It was a positive step forward. All she needed to do now was strengthen it.

"Perhaps he does love you," Roulette admitted, "But I doubt it's in a way that'll be good for you. Like I said, we've been doing our research. We even broke into Hargreeves' psycho-analyst folder. Kraken's quite twisted."

Vanya glared at her with something bordering on defiance.

"How to explain this…" mused Roulette, "Ah. Ever read _Porphyria's Lover _by Robert Browning?"

"No."

"It's a very long poem," said Roulette, "But I think I can remember some of it."

She coughed slightly to clear her throat before beginning.

"But sure I looked up at her eyes,

happy and proud; and last I knew

Porphyria worshipped me: surprise

made my heart swell, and still it grew

while I debated what to do.

That moment she was mine, mine, fair,

perfectly pure and good: I found

a thing to do, and all her hair

in one yellow string I wound

three times her little throat around,

and strangled her. No pain felt she;

I am quite sure she felt no pain.

As a shut bud that holds a bee,

I warily opened her eyes: Again

laughed the blue eyes without a stain.

And I untightened the tress

about her neck; her cheek once more

blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:

I propped her head up as before,

only, this time my shoulder bore

her head, which droops upon it still:

The smiling rosy little head,

so glad it has its utmost will,

That all its scorn at once is fled,

and I, its love, am gained instead!"

There was a pause.

"He…strangled her with her hair?"

"Yep," said Roulette.

"Morbid. I hardly see what that has to do with me though," Vanya said blankly.

"Porphyria loved a man deeply," shrugged Roulette, "and all she got back was a dark, twisted love. It ended up killing her. That's what's happening here, all you're getting is perverted love. Has he ever hit you?"

"No."

"Has he ever come close?"

"No."

"Has he ever yelled at you?"

Silence. Roulette fired off several questions as fast as possible.

"Has he ever broken things when you got into fights?"

"Has he ever been overly possessive?"

"How about getting jealous over nothing?"

More silence. Sighing Roulette shook her head.

"You can do better, especially now that you're with us. You can become something brand new, a second chance at life. We'll wipe away even the memory of your previous…existence."

She didn't say anything, and Roulette got the feeling she was getting somewhere.

"What if I want to keep it?" Vanya asked suddenly.

"Your name?" frowned Roulette, "Well of course you can keep that-"

"I'm not talking about my name! What if I want to keep it all, every bit of it? The good and the bad? What if I want to still be **me**? The same me who hates the violin and…and who's in love and wants to just live her own fucking life?!"

The drug was obviously wearing off. Roulette shook her head again.

"Your opinion doesn't matter right now," she said, "We know what's best for you, even if you can't see it."

"That's just perverted love too," Vanya said.

"No," smiled Roulette, "It isn't."

"And why's that?"

"Because it's me doing it. You'll understand someday."

"I won't."

"It's a bit of a gamble," admitted Roulette, "but not a big one."

Vanya stared at her for a minute.

"Why is everything you do a gamble? Why the hell do you have this weird theme?!"

Roulette got up and fixed Vanya with a bitter smile. Just then there was a knock at the door.

"Everything we do is a gamble, good or bad," she answered, "We gambled when we said no to Hargreeves. We gambled when took those jobs from Dr. Terminal. It's not unlike you, gambling with this boy. But I'd like to make a gamble for once that I know is a sure thing. Come in Poker!"


	16. Chapter 16

"Thanks for earlier," Séance barely heard Kraken mumble to Rumor.

"No problem. You care about her…don't you?"

"Yes."

"That's…something. I don't think I've ever felt like that…"

"What about the Polynesian knife thrower? Weren't you going to run away with him or something?"

Séance nearly laughed at how Rumor jumped.

"You knew about that?"

"My room's next to yours."

"I…you're not going to-"

"Of course I'm not going to tell," he said, "Why should I?"

"Thanks-" Rumor started, relieved.

"What're we supposed to do about the situation?" asked Horror, "I mean; there's not a lot of wiggle room in that ultimatum."

"That's why you should all take up interpretive dance," Séance suggested.

They ignored him. They always did, which didn't bother Séance half as much as people thought it should.

"You're not going to go and get yourself killed," said Hargreeves, "That much is obvious. .02, however, managed to come pretty close this afternoon."

Kraken shot him a glare. Then again, Kraken was always shooting someone a glare, so it didn't matter.

"Then again, they may be expecting you to try and attack instead of coming along quietly," Hargreeves mused, "It is the most obvious option thing after all."

"What would you have us do then sir?" asked Space.

"Attack them with trampolines!" Séance interjected, throwing his hands up in a wide gesture, "and elephants!"

"Bomb Elm Street," Hargreeves said patiently, as if it was horribly obvious, "We can use the radiation-repellent ones so it doesn't make the nuclear devices go off. Also a contained one so it'll be more specific to the address. They won't be expecting us to have weapons like that, so they wouldn't have prepared for it. Simple as that."

"We can't just bomb it," Kraken said, his voice low, "Vanya's in there."

"…and?" Hargreeves said, lighting a cigar.

Séance looked over at Kraken, who looked like he was ready to kill.

"There's no and," Kraken growled, "That's reason enough."

"I was under the impression that we have already had this talk," Hargreeves said, "I think it was a few weeks ago. Stop trying to be the young lovelorn fool and concentrate on what's really important."

Leaning backwards Séance prepared to enjoy the show. Kraken slammed his fist against a nearby wall.

"This was never important!" he snapped, "This whole being a superhero thing, it's not worth shit! It's never been important to any of us except the Space-monkey here! It's not what I care about!"

"And she is?" asked Hargreeves calmly, taking a drag from his cigar.

"Always," muttered Kraken, "Always."

This was the most entertained Séance had been in weeks. They should have homicidal people kidnap Vanya more often.

"So she's important?"

"More then anything," Kraken snapped.

"When will you learn .02?" sighed Hargreeves, "She **isn't **important enough for anything, especially not a rescue attempt of this caliber. She never was particularly important, except when it looked like she might be able to **do **something. That was when she was one and **several** years have passed since then. Now though, her only purpose is to cause trouble and apparently get herself kidnapped. Face the facts; she's useless."

For a moment there was silence. Then Kraken leaped forward and punched Hargreeves across the face, breaking his monocle. Spaceboy started forwards and jerked Kraken back.

"DON'T. SAY. THAT!" thundered Kraken, fighting Space's grip, "DON'T PEDDLE THAT BULLSHIT! HOW DARE YOU, HOW FUCKING DARE YOU YOU BASTARD!"

Séance started to wish that he'd brought some popcorn. Maybe there was a concession stand nearby he could visit. Kraken struggled against Space as Hargreeves got up slowly and raised his eyebrow.

"Foolish, foolish, foolish," tsked Hargreeves as though nothing had happened, "It appears that you still don't understand and I doubt you ever will. You are officially off this assignment."

Once again Kraken struggled against Space, desperate to punch Hargreeves again. "I expect you to carry out my orders .01," Hargreeves continued.

Everyone turned their attention to Space.

"Luther," Rumor said, getting to her feet and walking towards Space nervously, "We shouldn't do this. We can't just-"

"We can't just kill her," said Horror, surprising even Séance by the tone in his voice, "We grew up with Vanya. She…she's our sister and…and…we can't just do this. Come on."

For a minute Space's face was an agony of indecision. He didn't like sacrificing people, especially ones he knew. Yet, when push came to shove Séance knew which way he'd stumble. They all did. Arguing with him was pointless.

"Yes sir," he said quietly.

"You're a fucking coward Luther!" Kraken yelled.

"Yes," Space said quietly, "Yes I am."

"Not where it counts," said Hargreeves, satisfied, "Take .02 to his room, and lock him in. I expect the rest of you to go along with your leader's orders."

Turning on his heel Hargreeves left the room. All the members turned to Space.

"You…you can't actually do this!" Rumor said, "I know I'm not the best sister or the best friend, especially not to her…but you can't just-!"

"Just shut up Allison," Space said angrily, "Just shut up. We do the job we're supposed to."

Shaking his head Space dragged Kraken out of the room. Séance laughed.

"Wow, we're really turning into a Soap Opera, aren't' we?"


	17. Chapter 17

Scenes that appeared oddly random slipped in front of Vanya's eyes. One minute she'd been playing outside at seven, and then she'd been going off to college. It was like her mind was trying to go through as many memories as quickly as possible. From far off she felt a sting, almost like someone was sticking a needle into her arm. Nonetheless, her memories continued their relentless march.

One day there had been a particularly bad scene in the kitchen. Hargreeves had coldly asked Vanya why she hadn't been practicing her violin lately. She'd said she didn't care to, and one thing had led to another. Vanya ran up to her room, and Kraken had followed soon after. She'd started crying and he'd wrapped an arm around her comfortingly.

"Hargreeves is a bitch," he explained.

She laughed slightly but wasn't convinced. How could she be convinced of anything in a house like this?

"Nothing ever changes," she said after awhile, "does it?"

"Um…what?"

"Nobody changes in this house," replied Vanya, "No matter how long we stay here, Hargreeves will never be satisfied. Luther will always be a control freak. Allison will always be the favored daughter. Klaus will always be weird, Ben will always be indecisive, and you'll always be the one with the hide of steel. As for me…I'll always be the useless one."

Kraken shrugged. Vanya sighed and turned away. Placing his arms on her shoulders he turned her back to him.

"Hey," he said firmly, "Get that bullshit out of your head right now."

Again she wasn't wholly convinced. This time it must've shown because Kraken sighed, obviously frustrated.

"Look," Kraken said, "You've got an incredibly devious mind, and you're still the best at sneaking out of the house. You, Vanya, are a hellraiser."

"No I'm not," she laughed.

"Yes you are."

She laughed again. Why was he the one person in the world that could make her laugh? Why did she always feel elation at his approval and a sinking feeling whenever she didn't? Oh, she knew the answer to that. However, it wasn't something she allowed herself to go near. If she did, then she knew she'd end up getting hurt.

"Vanya," he said, "You are a hellraiser. You just need a way to show it."

Vanya furrowed her eyebrow. Then she got up slowly and looked at herself in the mirror. She wanted to see the person that Kraken was describing to her. However, all she saw was a face peering out through a curtain of dark hair. It was then that she realized what her way was. She turned around and grinned.

"Cut my hair."

"What?"

At eighteen Vanya had had hair that went gone past her waist. It was dark and glossy, like a black waterfall running down her back. Rumor had once commented about how she would do something with her hair if it looked like that. In other words, she'd been jealous. She had reason to be too. The only thing Vanya had up on her sister was how her hair looked. Then again, seeing as Rumor's opinion wasn't worth shit, then it didn't really matter what she did.

"Look," she said, "I generally wear my hair in front of my face. I just want it gone, okay? After that the safety net's gone."

"Your hair…is…your…safety net?"

"Men really are from Mars. Look, we haven't had to wear masks around the house since we were thirteen, right?" she asked impatiently.

"Right."

"Once the mask went off I started wearing my hair in front of my face."

A look of comprehension came over his face.

"So…your hair's…like a mask?"

"Yes."

"So it's not a safety net anymore?" he smirked.

"You know what I mean," she said, rolling her eyes, "I want it gone."

He looked at her doubtfully.

"Shouldn't you go to a salon or something-?"

"I'm grounded, remember?" she said dryly, "Hargreeves yelled it after me when I went up the stairs. Look, if you won't do it, then I'll do it. And I'm not so good with a knife. So if I end up with my throat cut or something then it's your faul-"

"Okay, okay!" he said, "I get it. Now how much do you want gone?"

"Oh…a little shorter then you I suppose."

He stared at her for a minute before shaking his head. Taking out his knife and started whittling away at her hair methodically. Soon long locks of black hair tumbled to the floor, followed by shorter ones as he tried to refine his work. Once he finished he looked at her critically.

Kraken whistled approvingly.

"Don't think I'm going to quit my day job just yet," he said, "But I'd say you looked…well…if I used the word 'cute' I might use it now."

"I think it looks good too," she said as she turned around.

She did look better with her hair short. Now she could at least see her own face when she looked in the mirror.

"Hey," he said, "Some got on your face. Hold still."

As he leaned forward and brushed it off, she noticed how close he was to her face. Swallowing she tried to get rid of the urge to kiss him. Finally he got the last of it, but not in time.

"Ther-" he started.

Before he could finish, Vanya leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips. Every single thought she had ever had flew out the window as her mind tried desperately to register what was going on. Was this a dream? It felt like it, certainly. When she pulled away he noticed how red his face was. Not a dream then.

She felt her cheeks flush. At about that moment she wished she could be anywhere but there.

"Oh God," she said, "I'm really sorry, I just-"

He cut her off by pulling her into a longer, deeper kiss. At first she'd been as surprised as he was, but she got over it and responded enthusiastically. Tugging on his hair she pulled him closer, never wanting to let him go. The sentiment seemed to be shared as he gripped her tighter. However, she felt him slipping away from her. Just like the memory.

Everything was going away. She clutched around the memory desperately, trying to remember what had been happening, who she'd been kissing. She knew he was important…or was he? What was she doing in that memory? Had she been kissing him or…or…or…she didn't know. She didn't know anything about that memory. Where it had been, there was only a large gaping darkness.

.

.

.

"The reprogramming's going rather well," said Poker as he monitored Vanya's heart rate, "Better then I expected."

"She won't remember a thing?" asked Roulette.

"Not a thing. When she wakes up it'll be a clean slate, and she'll still be pretty docile from the drug. She'll also believe whatever you tell her. However…"

"Yes?"

He hesitated, as though trying to figure out if he should lie or not. Finally he shook his head.

"It's a delicate process," he said, "I suppose she could break through it…if she really **really **tried. However, I'm fairly certain that would result in her death."

"Why's that?" Roulette asked sharply.

"Too much strain on the brain," he said, "Think about this. We're running through her memories, erasing them, and then giving her new ones. I nearly got an aneurism just **thinking** it up. Imagine what it would do to her. But I wouldn't worry too much about that. It would take some really extreme stimulus for her to even contemplate doubting what she's been told."

"But still," pressed Roulette, "Could you fix it if it goes wrong?"

"…yes," he said tiredly, "I could. But like I said-"

"Good," Roulette said, "Now, when'll she wake up?"

"Perhaps five minutes," shrugged Poker, "Do you want me to help Baccarat with the preparations, give you two some time alone?"

"That'll be good," she said, "You seem to read my mind, you know that? As for the preparations, they should go ahead full speed. We only have nineteen hours until the deadline and the Umbrella Academy is unlikely to go down without a fight."

Poker nodded before quietly exiting the room.


	18. Chapter 18

That night Kraken slipped out the window. Long ago Hargreeves had installed locks, but Kraken had figured out how to pick them soon after. The fence that ran around the compound wasn't a threat either. It had been when he was younger, but he could now jump it if he went at it running.

The only obstacle that stood in his way anymore were the alarms that had been placed on the outside of the building. In the past Vanya had always been able to disable them with a screw driver. From what she'd told him he had been able to understand the basic mechanics. However, he was never particularly good at it. Just another reason why he needed her.

He managed to do it that night though and quickly moved down the fire escape. He'd snuck out of the house enough to know just where to go and when to do it. All of the machinery in the Hargreeves manor was timed. A long time ago he'd memorized them all, and had it worked down to seconds. There weren't any patrols that night either, so he knew it'd be easier. All he had to do now was get to the garage, get some form of transportation, break in, and get her the hell out of there.

It wasn't much of a plan. Kraken would be the first to admit that. However, now wasn't the time for fancy plans. It was the time to move and get things done as fast as humanly possible. He'd already almost lost an hour since he realized that he wasn't going to get any support. So he'd decided to do it by himself.

The idea had come to him about two seconds after Spaceboy had caved to Hargreeves demands. Kraken wasn't about to let her die just because Space and Hargreeves wanted to take the easy way out. She was worth more than that, worth more than both of them combined. Quickly he picked the lock on the garage. It had been a long night, but it was only just beginning.

His eyes swept over the large array of cars before deciding on one. Once upon a time the keys had been available for all of their use. There had actually been a schedule posted as well as a rotation. All of that had changed, however, when Séance crashed one into the living room while eating a rather large cotton candy. His only reply to the inquiries about his behavior was;

"But they did it at the Circus!"

After that Hargreeves had taken away the keys to the cars. For once there had been disastrous consequences that weren't his fault. Go figure. However, Hargreeves had forbidden them to use any of the cars into the future. Kraken snorted at the memory. As if he couldn't hotwire a car.

Crouching down he started to fiddle with the wires. It was easy really. He'd done this so many times that he didn't even need to think about what he was doing anymore. The engine roared to life and Kraken grinned. Time to get this thing on the road. Just when he was about to get in it he heard;

"You know, you're riding without an actual license."

Turning around he saw Rumor shaking her head with a half smile. Séance and Horror stood behind her, staring at him.

"You never actually did pass the test, did you?" she continued.

"What the hell do you want?" he growled.

Horror looked at Rumor for support. She sighed.

"Luther's following orders to the letter," she said, "He's getting ready to leave in a few minutes."

"Why am I not surprised?" replied Kraken.

"But…the thing is…what we…I guess what we're trying to say here is…" she started before pausing.

"We don't really feel like killing Vanya," finished Horror, "And we had a talk about it and…well…"

His voice trailed off. There was a silence.

"Hey," Séance said, "Don't look at me. Only reason I'm here is because I thought there'd be guacamole."

"Point is we're…I suppose you could say we're mutinying," said Rumor impatiently, "Seeing as you don't feel like letting her die either…it looks like we're going to have to do this together."

"How do I know I can trust any of you?" asked Kraken through narrowed eyes.

"Come on," said Rumor, "If Hargreeves had sent us then you'd be back in your room right now."

Kraken thought for a minute. He'd prefer it if he could do this himself, mostly because he didn't like having anything to do with his siblings. If it was just up to him, then he'd tell them to fuck off. Yet, it wasn't up to him and it certainly wasn't him that was in jeopardy. It was Vanya, and that made him reassess his priorities.

"Besides," added Rumor, "Do you even have a plan?"

That question struck a rather raw nerve. He finished reassessing his priorities pretty quickly.

"No," he admitted as he got out of the car, "Not after breaking in. But…I've got one coming to me."

"A-huh," said Rumor.

"No," he said, "This one might actually work."

"Okay," said Rumor, rolling her eyes, "What do you want us to do?"

"To start with, you stay here."

"What?!" she asked indignantly.

"Stay here and try to slow Luther down, all right? I don't think he's so certain about this anyway," Kraken said patiently.

"Well why can't Ben or Klaus do that?"

Kraken gave her a look. She glanced at Séance.

"Well why can't Ben do that?" she corrected herself, "No offense, but I am stronger."

"None taken," Horror assured.

Kraken hesitated. He hated Space with a passion and under most circumstances he'd gladly spill his innermost secrets to the worst people possible. Space would do the same to him given half a chance, and in fact he had. However, due to the circumstances he decided that some things were better left unsaid. Besides, he doubted she'd believe him.

"He trusts you," he decided finally.

She made a face.

"He at least acknowledges that you might know what you're talking about," Kraken amended, "Besides, I need Horror and Séance for something specific."

"Good thing I wasn't planning on doing anything later tonight," yawned Séance.

"Fine," Rumor muttered, "I guess if bad comes to worse I can just lie to him. I'm good at that after all."

"What do you want us to do?" asked Horror eagerly.

Leaning up against the wall Kraken closed his eyes for a minute and thought. Yes…that might work. At this point he was willing to try anything for Vanya.

"Alright," he said, "This is what we're gonna do…"


	19. Chapter 19

Roulette divided Vanya's now long hair into sections and started braiding. It turned out that she was better at it then she'd previously thought, but worse than average. This was bad because Roulette had always figured that it didn't take much skill. As it was, it turned out it did. She frowned at that thought, but decided to continue. It was what she was supposed to do anyway.

Besides, her hair needed to be braided. That way it would look quite pretty with the dress she was wearing now. Normally something a bit more flashy would be picked out for a member of Monte Carlo. However, considering the circumstances, the empire waist light blue dress would do nicely. It trailed past her ankles and made a slight swishing noise when she moved. It looked wonderful on her. Then again, Vanya had always looked pretty in blue when she was younger.

Make-up had had to be considered as well. She couldn't just let her daughter roam around in that ghastly dark eye shadow and mascara. That sort of thing just wasn't right for the image. So she'd decided on light tones to bring out the roundness of her mouth and brightness of her eyes with lighter shades.

All in all Vanya looked sort of like a doll. A very pretty doll, but a doll nonetheless. Seeing as that had been the whole point though, Roulette didn't see anything wrong with that description.

"Ma'am?" Slots asked as she came into the room.

Roulette turned to look at her and sighed. Though she looked at her she didn't stop braiding Vanya's hair.

"How's the progress coming?"

"Very good. Everything's in place, as per your instructions," Slots said.

"Excellent. You're three hours early."

She watched as Slots gave herself a congratulatory smile. Then she cast a look in Vanya's direction.

"Ah yes," Roulette said, "Vanya, meet your cousin Slots."

Vanya turned and looked at her with glazed eyes. A vacant smile formed on her lips. Curiously Slots cocked her head.

"It worked then?"

"Poker's inventions always work, even if they aren't always in the way you'd expect them," Roulette said primly, "I had to do some cosmetic work, of course. I just couldn't stand her in that dreadful haircut."

Slots stared at Vanya's empty expression for a few more seconds. Roulette cursed under her breath and started over with the braid.

"So…how's she mentally?" asked Slots slowly.

Hands faltering Roulette stopped braiding Vanya's hair to ponder the question.

"Stablish," she said at length, "She's absorbing what I'm telling her rather rapidly. However, the cut-off point is soon and after that we're not sure if she'll take in any new information. But…I think she knows what she needs to. It's not as if she'll be able to teach a college course, but she'll be fine."

Once again Slots' eyes trailed over to Vanya's expression.

"Whatever you say," said Slots, with only a hint of doubt, "All I'm worried about is how much she'll remember. Do you think she'll be able to watch us kill her family?"

Roulette gave her a sharp look as she pulled Vanya's hair out of her pitiful attempt at a braid.

"**We **are her family," she spat, "Not **them**."

Slots blanched.

"That wasn't what I meant-"

"Of course not," sneered Roulette, while still giving her niece a way out, "It was just a slip of the tongue, was it not?"

Closing her eyes Slots nodded firmly.

"Good," said Roulette, her hands returning to braiding Vanya's hair with a good deal more force then she had used originally.

Nervously Slots shifted from one foot to another. It was obvious that she intended to choose her words a good deal more carefully now.

"What I meant to ask was; do you think she'll be able to watch us kill the Hargreeves?"

That was more like it.

"Without a doubt," said Roulette, satisfied, "One of the first things I did was show her a picture of the Academy and told her that they all need to be punished violently. She should take that as gospel now. Besides, the sooner she knows what we're all about the better."

"You intend her to be part of Monte Carlo then?" asked Slots.

Quickly Slots amended her words before Roulette could take offense to them.

"Do you think she'll be able to fully participate with us I mean? Be given a name and enter the family business with both feet?"

That was actually a question that Roulette hadn't thought about. She'd meant for Vanya to stay with them, certainly. However, she hadn't thought of her in that capacity. Not yet anyways.

"Perhaps," answered Roulette noncommittally, "Let's see how she does for her first few weeks, shall we? She's only actually been herself for a few hours. I'm not even sure if she can speak yet."

As if to illustrate this point Vanya gave another vacant smile.

"Now then," said Roulette with a business-like tone, "How do you think the Umbrellas will attack? You're our best strategist."

Beaming with pride, Slots replied;

"Hard to say. They may try to do a direct approach and just blow us up. Or they might try to use a covert squadron and a distraction to try to get in."

"Which one do you think?"

"Honestly?"

"Honestly."

"I think they're going to resort to trickery," said Slots.

"Why- oh drat this braid!" Roulette said, frustrated.

Picking up a hairbrush Roulette started to comb through Vanya's hair. Braiding would have to wait for another time.

"Anyway, why do you think they'll do that?"

Slots hesitated.

"Permission to speak freely?"

"Whatever you want."

"I think they might try to get her back," Slots said, not quite assured by Roulette's reply, "I think they care for her, a little anyway. Especially…you know. But that might make them want to 'rescue' her."

Roulette pondered this.

"It's possible," she said, "and I'm putting you in charge. Try to tell Blackjack this with **some **grace."

Slots smirked and Roulette knew that it would be told as bluntly as possible.

"Good luck niece," she said, still combing Vanya's hair.

"Oh, I don't think I'll need that," Slots said, "After all, we're all so very lucky."


	20. Chapter 20

"Well look what the cat dragged in," said Klondike.

"I think I dragged myself in," Kraken replied.

Klondike smirked and Kraken had to repress the urge to punch him in the face.

"So what are you doing here?" he asked, "You're at least a few hours early."

"Look," he said irritably, "Can we just get this over with?"

He raised his eyebrows.

"Excuse me?"

"Posturing," he said, "It's one of the things that I've seen quite a bit back at the bastard's manor. I'm tired of fucking posturing and I'd like to get things over and done with, if it's all the same to you."

He frowned.

"So…you've got a death wish?"

"Not exactly," responded Kraken, "It's more like I'm sick and tired of these things happening. I'm tired of all the shit that happens in my life. For instance there's a big gaping hole where my future would be, and thanks to your matriarch I just lost my eye. Most of all, and I mean most of all, I am so fucking sick of the people I see every single day. You've seen them, right?"

Shrugging Klondike gave him a grudging nod of acknowledgement.

"Now," he said, "I figure that if I've got to die with them, or a little earlier, I'd pick a little earlier."

Cocking his head Klondike surveyed him. Kraken had never thought of him as much of a thinker, and he was hoping that his original assessment had been correct. Finally he said;

"I've got no problem if you want to die early. In fact, Roulette'd probably be damned excited. But…I'm going to have to talk to Slots about this."

Kraken shrugged in agreement as Klondike started to take his radio out. Just as his hand reached behind his back Kraken launched himself forward and twisted his neck all the way to the right. There was a sharp snap, and Klondike fell to the floor. Kraken sighed in relief. At least that part had gone well. He checked his watch. 10: 45 p.m. All he had to do now was trust that Séance, Horror, and Rumor were doing their jobs. That and hope that Vanya was still alright.

.

.

.

"Ten thousand bottles of bear on the wall, ten thousand bottles of beer!" sang Séance, "You take one down and pass it around, ten thousand bottles of beer on the wall!"

Damn he was good at singing. Even if he was in the sewers and the only ones to hear his artistic wails were rats, he was still pretty good. He paused to look at them, cocking his head to the side. In the future he might construe some sort of rat opera. He could give the rats little fans, opera glasses, feather boas, the works. Maybe he could even make a little theater complete with opera boxes. That would actually be cool.

Wait a minute, wasn't there something he was supposed to be doing? Besides thinking about Rats anyway. Something to do with…peanuts…and…ah yes. He sighed deeply. It figured that the world would try to interrupt his amazing thoughts. He checked his watch. 10:50 p.m. Oh well, nothing to do but keep going.

"Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine bottles of beer!" he continued, "You take one down, pass it around, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall…"

.

.

.

Horror had gotten into his position relatively early on. That meant that all there was left to do was wait. Horror didn't like waiting. He'd never liked waiting, for anything. Oh, standing in line for a movie ticket was fine, but waiting on assignments were terrible. Mostly it was because he had no idea what was going on with his other siblings.

Not to mention that it left him far too much time to think. They were going up against what Hargreeves and Spaceboy wanted to do. That made him bite his nails, something he hadn't done since he was six. Part of him wished that he could go back to the stability that they had represented. Taking orders from them had been simple and straightforward. Now that was gone.

However, he couldn't go back. It was no longer an option. He'd gotten too far in to get out now. If they survived and made it back the punishments would probably be terrible too. Once again though, he had made his decision. It had been the right choice, but just because it had been the right choice didn't make it any easier.

He checked his watch. 10:52 p.m. Horror sighed. Settling down into his spot, he prepared himself for a good long wait alone with his thoughts.

.

.

.

"I can't find Ben or Klaus," Rumor said.

After waiting a reasonable time Rumor had gone off to find the rest of her 'family'. Eventually she found them in the plane hangar. Hargreeves looked up and rolled his eyes. Space looked slightly more alarmed.

"That means they've probably gone off to get themselves killed," he snorted, "Have you checked on .02?"

Rumor shook her head.

"I don't know where Diego is," she lied.

Hargreeves looked her over for one minute before nodding.

"I suppose he's out too. Wonderful. Well, the plan should go ahead as before."

"But…that means that all four of them will die!" protested Space.

Turning around Hargreeves glared at Space.

"Did I ask for your input .01?" asked Hargreeves.

"N….no sir."

"Excellent," Hargreeves said, before turning around to face Rumor.

She felt the oddest sensation as though he were trying to read her thoughts. Rumor found that she was trying to make her mind blank, even though she knew she was being irrational. Finally Hargreeves said;

"I'm a little surprised you didn't go with them. You **were **the first to voice your opinion that what we were doing was wrong."

Quickly Rumor scanned through her mind. She came up with the only solution that she could proffer;

"I don't want to die."

Hargreeves nodded his head. As he did so she looked at her watch from the corner of her eye. 10:59 p.m.

"Good enough," he said, ".03, go with .01. Let's get this over with."


	21. Chapter 21

"So, where's my new cousin?" smirked Baccarat.

Roulette smiled at him as she entered the room. It was the surveillance room, and it was filled wall to wall with different screens showing different parts of the compound. It did pay to put in CCTV.

"She's resting," she said, taking a seat, "It's been a very long day for her. Of course, her mind is still a tad…unstable, but things will get better."

"Of course," said Baccarat, "I look forward to that. Slots and Blackjack never talk to each other, so it's always a little tense. And just the other day Slots was complaining just the other day how she would've liked another girl to pal around with."

"She was just saying that because you all had left the milk in the fridge so long it had become sour cream," smiled Roulette.

"Women and their particulars," snorted Baccarat.

"And their expiration dates," added Roulette.

Baccarat gave a short chuckle and Roulette nodded at him. This was what it was supposed to be all about, keeping with your family and sharing good times. That's all she'd really wanted. Her first family had been taken from her, but she'd been given another one. They'd be a family too, a proper family, just as soon as this whole thing was over. She couldn't wait.

They both turned back to the screen in time to see Kraken enter the picture and begin talking with Klondike.

"What the hell is he doing here?" hissed Roulette.

"How should I know?"

"What's he saying?"

"I'll turn up the sound," said Baccarat.

"-going to have to talk to Slots about this," they heard Klondike say.

They both watched, open mouthed, as Kraken twisted Klondike's neck around. They looked at the screen in stunned silence.

"He killed Klondike," Baccarat said blankly.

Roulette clenched her fists and glared at the monitor. She saw Kraken step around Klondike's body and open the door to the compound.

"He killed Klondike," Baccarat repeated stupidly.

"Yes," she said, "Now he's taken away two members of our family. I was thinking about making it merciful, perhaps pull him apart limb from limb. But now…we're going to destroy everything. Tell everyone to get down there. Get me Slots on line two."

She looked at Baccarat, who was still staring at the screen.

"NOW!" screeched Roulette.

Baccarat snapped out of it and nodded, his fingers flying over the keyboard, but his eyes glued to the screen where his cousin's dead body lay.

.

.

.

"What?" whispered Slots.

"You heard me," said Roulette, "He's dead and the Kraken's in the compound. You've got to move fast and do what I told you."

Slots didn't answer. There were too many things running through her mind.

"I know this hurts," Roulette said softly on the other end, "but if you don't move now he's going to get away with it. He's heading your way now, and he'll be there in about a minute. Come on Slots, don't let this happen."

Slots' grip on her walkie-talkie tightened.

"Don't worry," she said shortly, snapping it off.

As soon as she said those words she moved behind a wall and started tugging angrily on one of her ears. How could this happen? It wasn't supposed to be this way. They weren't supposed to care about her, they weren't supposed to try and rescue her. Even when she'd said that they might do just that to Roulette it had just been empty theorizing. Why couldn't they just play along like they were supposed to?

Straining her ears she heard faint footsteps approaching her. Quickly she turned outside the wall and switched on the emitter, similar to the one used at the airport. Kraken didn't have much time to react; he just fell to the floor and clutched his ears. Under normal circumstances she didn't like using trickery. This time though she'd had to. Otherwise he might've killed her the way he'd killed Klondike, the bastard. She choked back tears at the thought of her dead cousin, and she glared at the man who'd done it.

Slots let it run for a few more seconds before switching it off. She crouched down and grabbed him by his arm, pulling him upwards.

"You must've thought we were stupid!" she snarled as she dragged Kraken along, "Of course we have surveillance!"

Kraken didn't say anything. Of course, how could he? He was halfway paralyzed with blood coming out of his ears. However, she saw that he was returning to himself quickly. At least he was enough of himself to glare at her in a way that clearly showed no repentance. She dragged him along, still feeling like killing him now would be better. Roulette had mentioned a plan, so she knew she'd better follow it though.

Angrily she tossed him onto the floor and heard the thunk he made with satisfaction. She hoped it hurt. She had no idea what Roulette had planned, but she hoped it caused him agonizing pain.

"I brought him, just like you said," she said, straightening up and addressing her aunt.

Roulette stared coldly down at him and nodded.

"Thank you Slots," she said, "Turn the emitter on, but to the lowest setting. We can't have him getting up."

She cocked her head.

"Now, you disgusting piece of slime," she said to Kraken, "what do you have to say for yourself?"

She saw Kraken glare up at her, and Slots kicked him in the head.

"I appreciate the sentiment," Roulette said, "But I really think we should save that for later. He's going to wish we just tore him apart then."

Roulette walked a few steps towards him and knelt down so she could look him in the eye.

"Did you think that you could just come in here and keep taking from me?" she hissed, "My husband, dead by your hand. My nephew, dead the same way. My daughter…well, she's fine now. At least I managed to save her, to take her away from what you would've done. I think you loving her might've been worse then you hating her."

Slots saw something flash in Kraken's eyes. Was it fear? Not for himself…he didn't seem to actually feel anything for **himself**…she smiled. Now she saw what Roulette had planned.

"Don't worry about her," she said, "But…I do want her to see you die. I really do."

Roulette straightened up.

"Vanya?" she called, "Would you be a dear and come in here?"


	22. Chapter 22

Rumor quietly looked at Spaceboy out of the corner of her eye. He was tense, she could see that. Anyone could see that even if they weren't looking very hard. Space didn't want to do what he was doing now. He didn't want to kill his siblings, even though he hated them. It was difficult for her not to smile. Her job wouldn't be so hard after all. Not if she played her cards right, and she was notoriously good at doing that.

A few years ago she had wanted to take acting lessons. Hargreeves had refused, saying that she was already a devious little liar without being professionally coached. He was right. She looked at her watch. 11:10 p.m. Time to get things rolling.

"Are you all right Luther?" she asked innocently as they buckled in.

"I'm fine," he said shortly.

"It's just…" she feigned reluctance to speak, "I just don't…"

"You volunteered to come," Space said harshly.

Rumor bit her fingernail, which was quite hard to do through a glove. Nonetheless, it was something she did when she was nervous, and she knew that Space would recognize the gesture.

"I know, I know," she said, "And…I know that I did the smart thing."

"Yes," Space said distantly, "You did the smart thing."

She tried to gauge his reaction. However, he was one of the few people she had difficulty reading. No matter, she'd deal with it.

"The smart thing…" she said haltingly, "Yeah, I did the smart thing. But…are you so sure that it's also the **right** thing?"

"Allison…" said Space dangerously.

"Luther!" she said, as though the words were bursting involuntarily from her, "We're going to kill them if we do this! We grew up with them an-!"

"JUST SHUT UP!" roared Space, "JUST SHUT UP, ALRIGHT?"

She lapsed into silence. As he started to initiate the launch sequence, Rumor turned away. It was then that she did smile.

.

.

.

Kraken had been cussing his own stupidity. He should've thought about the surveillance cameras. Now he was wondering if they were everywhere. Perhaps they'd even found out what Horror and Séance were doing. He took some small comfort from the fact that they were all in the room though. Maybe they thought he'd come alone. Or maybe his murder of Klondike had made them so mad they weren't thinking straight.

All of that comfort disappeared the moment Roulette said;

"Vanya? Would you be a dear and come in here?"

His insides turned to ice as he heard the clicking of heels enter the room. Turning his eyes in the direction of the noise he saw her. It was hard to recognize her at first, mostly because of the length of her hair. When he did though, part of his brain rebelled in incredulity.

She was wearing a light blue empire waist dress that trailed past her ankles. He'd never seen her wear blue before, because he knew she hated that color. All of the dark make-up she'd worn for most of her teenage life had been removed and replaced with pastel colors. They bring out the roundness of her mouth and brightness of her eyes. However, it also showed that those eyes, once so full of defiance and love, had glazed over and her face was fixed in a vacant look.

All in all Vanya looked sort of like a doll. A very pretty doll, but a doll nonetheless. He had a creeping suspicion that that had been the whole point though, and Kraken gritted his teeth in anger that she'd been taken from him. It was then that he found his tongue.

"What the hell did you do to her?"

Roulette grinned and walked over to Vanya, putting her hands on her shoulders.

"Mended her," she said, "She's so much better now."

"She was fine BEFORE!" he snarled.

He felt something hard slam into his stomach, and he barely managed to turn to see Blackjack and Slots kicking him.

"I'm glad the two of you can agree on something," smiled Roulette, "But you may desist…for now."

The two of them backed off reluctantly and Roulette turned back to him.

"And for your information she wasn't. Now, she might not have all of her faculties, but she is better off."

Kraken glared at her and Roulette smiled back.

"What the hell makes you think that?" he snarled.

"And thus we sit together now, and all night long we have not stirred," murmured Roulette as she brushed some of Vanya's hair away from her face, "and yet God has not said a word!"

"_Porphyria's Lover_?" Kraken grimaced.

Roulette looked back at him in surprise.

"You know it?"

"Know it, read it, studied it, thought it was depressing as shit," Kraken growled, "What's the point in reciting it? No, wait, I know. You're trying to do a little comparison, aren't you?"

"Give the man a cookie," she said, clapping her hands.

Summoning up his strength Kraken shook his head.

"So the 'Be sure I looked up at her eyes happy and proud: and last I knew Porphyria worshipped me: surprise made my heart swell and still it grew while I debated what to do' bit and the 'She guessed not how her darling one wish would be heard' part, and the fact that she didn't fight back when he was strangling her are being overlooked?"

She sneered.

"He killed her."

"She wanted him to," scoffed Kraken, "Believe me, Hargreeves made me take a test on this. Then he made me retake it because I got a 'C'. It was a stupid poem. And for your information, I'd never have hurt her. That's the furthest thing from my mind at any time. But, and this is just me talking, you took her mind from her. And I think that's just about the worst thing someone can do to a person."

Seeing Roulette's discomfort he smirked and said;

"In that school of thought **Hargreeves **was a better parent then you, and he sucks ass."

For a minute Roulette just stared at him, beside herself with rage. Then she shrieked;

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL WAITING FOR?!"

Blows came from every side, and all Kraken could do was just lie there and bleed. And above it all was Vanya's impassive face staring at him. That was the worst.


	23. Chapter 23

"Four hundred bottles of bear on the wall, four hundred bottles of beer!" sang Séance loudly as he climbed out of the manhole and onto the street, swaying like a drunkard, "You take one down and pass it around, four hundred bottles of beer on the wall!"

He paused, now looking down at his watch. 11:50 p.m. A hah! Ten minutes to go! He smirked as he continued down the street, swinging up a ladder that led to a building across the way. As he climbed he could practically feel the bothersome seconds ticking away.

"Fun stuff, very soon!" he said.

Horror shook his head at the sight of his brother. Séance plunked down loudly next to him, still grinning.

"Is it even physically possible for you to move quietly?" he asked.

"Nope," said Séance, "You got everything all wired up?"

"Yes," sighed Horror, "But Diego hasn't come out yet and we both know that if he doesn't come out soon-"

"Hah!" snorted Séance, "You don't need to worry about that sunuvabitch. If I know him, he's using the whole 'last minute' thing to make himself look like a hero. Just you wait and see."

Horror shook his head.

.

.

.

Rumor looked at her watch. 11:52 p.m. She wished she didn't have to do it, but he'd proved surprisingly resilient. She sighed, but knew what she had to do. It was her job after all.

"Luther," she said, "Let me be frank with you."

He turned to look at her, momentarily looking away from the controls. She'd never done this before. Not to him, not to any member of her family. That might be why her voice started out hoarse. However, it turned stronger as she thought about what would happen if she didn't.

"I heard a rumor that your limbs become so cramped after ten minutes of flying that you can't use them anymore."

Space froze and stared at her as she climbed over him and started using the controls.

"I'm sorry Luther," she said, catching his expression, "But…this is just what had to be done. So sorry."

.

.

.

Kraken knew that if he didn't do something in the next few minutes, then he wouldn't be able to get Vanya out of there. He just wouldn't have the strength for it. Breathing in heavily he tried to push away the effects of the paralysis. The theory hadn't worked so far, probably because he was having difficulty concentrating when he was getting the shit beaten out of him.

It was then that he heard it, faint and far off.

"…Diego?"

At first he thought that he'd imagined it. Then it came back again, stronger this time and more resolute.

"Diego?"

The members of Monte Carlo looked up in shock, backing off slowly. He looked up and shared their surprise. For what he saw was something that he knew was next to impossible. He'd been told it was impossible, and he figured it would be. It was Vanya, taking slow and ponderous steps towards him. He watched her progress until the hem of her dress brushed his face.

"Diego," she repeated again, as though trying to cement the thought in her mind.

"Yeah," he grunted, managing a half-grin.

She sank to her knees and touched his face with her hand. However, she didn't say anything else as her hand traced his face. A smile that was slightly more genuine then the others crossed her lips.

"You came for me," she murmured.

"Fucking always," he grinned, "I think you need a haircut though."

A completely genuine smile lit up her face. Then he saw her stiffen, and to his shock and horror drops of blood started to trickle from her eyes. She used her free hand to wipe some of it off and look at it. As she started to fall to the floor, Kraken laboriously pushed himself up painfully to catch her.

Her head rolled almost uselessly in his arms and her eyes, still weeping blood, turned towards him. He looked around, noticing that blood was also coming from her ears and matting her now long hair. She seemed as surprised as Kraken.

"WHAT THE FUCK'S GOING ON!?" he screamed.

All the members of Monte Carlo looked helplessly at each other. Roulette stared blankly at Vanya, looking as though the world was falling out from under her.

"You promised Poker," she said, her voice almost a wail, "You **promised **this wouldn't happen!"

"What the hell!?" Kraken yelled.

"The…the stimulus must've been too strong! I…I don't know how many aneurisms are going on right now," Poker said, sounding panicked, "I could probably fix it if I could just-"

And then the explosions started.

.

.

.

"Dun da dun dun dun dun dun DUN DUN DA!" shouted Séance as the explosives he'd planted around the foundation went off.

"They still haven't come out of the building," said Horror, grimacing at his brother's rendition of _1812 Overture_, "So there's no need to celebrate."

"There is every fucking reason to celebrate!" Séance declared, doing an odd and completely sporadic dance that looked like…like…it actually looked like a drunken baby monkey having a seizure.

"No there isn't!" said Horror irritably.

"Dude," said Séance, still doing the little dance, "You did what he told you too, right? He told you to do it at midnight whether he came out or not."

Horror sighed and looked at his watch. Yeah, it was midnight. Kraken hadn't come out though, but hopefully he'd find himself in a position where the falling foundation wouldn't affect him. Horror hadn't disobeyed Hargreeves to end up killing **two **of his siblings instead of just one.


	24. Chapter 24

Rumor saw the explosion from the sky. It wasn't particularly big, just enough to crumble the foundations. It was more like a warning shot. It was the second blast was meant to destroy it. It was just like Hargreeves' plan, only a tad more delicate and sensitive to the fact that one of their own was there.

Hargreeves wouldn't have amended his plan, nor would he have done things the easy way like they were doing. Why should he? It wasn't like he cared about any of them, and Vanya least of all. Tiredly she eased the plane into a lower altitude, checking the time on her watch as she did so. 12:01 p.m. Nine more minutes before the other explosives went off.

Quietly she thought of what would happen when she got home. Hargreeves would be incensed and the punishments would be terrible. However…she wasn't scared. For once she found herself doing the right thing. She wasn't just going to stand there passively while Vanya died because of her inactions. That was one part of it.

The other part of it was that she knew that they would probably be in her place at one time or another. Selfish, yes, but she knew that if it could happen to Vanya then it might happen to her. What if she was left to die one day? Well, it wasn't going to happen now. They'd established a precedent tonight, a 'no man left behind' precedent that would save all of them in the future. It was something that Hargreeves wouldn't have even comprehended. Like she'd realized before, it was because he just didn't give a shit about stuff like that.

She turned and looked at Space, who was still looking at her incredulously.

"What?" she snapped, "Do you really think I'd just let her die? The least I could do is give her a fucking chance. That's something you and 'Daddy' wouldn't allow. It's like your fucking clones of each other."

He just stared at her in silence. Then he blinked in affirmation. She looked at him, slightly surprised. The look he gave back practically said;

"I'm not his clone yet."

For a minute she continued to stare at him. Then she shook her head and got ready to land at the rendezvous point. Rumor could only hope that the other parts of the plan had gone as well as hers had.

.

.

.

Kraken shoved some of the debris off of them. Off to his side he saw that Baccarat and Slots had definitely been killed by the blast. He couldn't see Poker, Slots, or Blackjack, but they weren't attacking him and that was always a plus. However, he knew they'd have to get out soon before the second wave hit. If memory served him correctly they had ten minutes, but he wasn't sure if he trusted Séance to be accurate.

As soon as he was able to assess the situation and see that they weren't trapped or about to be attacked he turned back to Vanya. Kraken had been relieved that he'd managed to shield her from the falling debris and basically protect her. However, she might've been unharmed from the explosion, but she certainly wasn't unharmed from whatever had caused her to bleed in the first place.

He was alarmed to see that blood was still coming out of her eyes and ears. It was also trickling out of her mouth. She seemed to be losing consciousness, and perhaps even her sense of self. Kraken wasn't about to let that happen. Not to her, not ever.

"Vanya?" he asked, trying to make sure that she was still conscious.

A low moan escaped from her lips. He sighed, but there wasn't much relief in it. She was bleeding far too much for any sort of relief. Propping her up he looked her in the eyes.

"Look," he said, "You've got to tell me what's wrong. I can't help if you don't tell me!"

Vanya's head lolled and her eyes showed that she had no idea. He heard some shifting in the rubble but dismissed it as the building just shifting.

"Vanya," he whispered urgently, "Just…tell me something. Anything…I don't know what to do…"

She shook her head limply, as if to reinforce the fact that she didn't have an idea what to do either. There was some more shuffling, but he was beyond caring what was going on behind him.

"Fuck it Vanya," Kraken growled through gritted teeth, "I can't…I can't do this…I can't lose you…you know **that**!"

She just stared back at him, her eyes slightly obscured by the blood.

"Vanya," he choked out, "I…I know I've never said this…but…I love you. You can't just…you can't just…"

He saw a small smile appear on her face which made him want to just die. How could this happen? After everything that he'd done to save her…it couldn't end like this. It **shouldn't **end like this!

"Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor, to set its struggling passion free from pride, and vainer ties dissever," he heard Roulette whisper distantly.

Kraken whipped around to see Roulette, bloody and torn, but out of the rubble. Poker and Blackjack were supporting her, despite the fact that they were both beat up themselves. Blackjack had a gun pointed at Kraken's head with his free hand.

"Why won't you just die?" hissed Blackjack.

"Go. Away," Kraken snarled.

Roulette shook her head and motioned for Blackjack to put his gun down.

"Go away," snarled Kraken again.

"Not yet," she said softly, "Poker, I know you know how to help her. Do it."

"But…we won't be able to get away," he said uncertainly, "There won't be enough time. We should just leave-"

"It's over," Roulette snapped, "We have no chance of getting out of this. They've probably got people waiting for us. We are going to jail. Accept it and save her. We all know you can do it."

Still Poker hesitated.

"Poker," said Roulette firmly, "She's your **niece**."

"I…I…"

"Pavel," Roulette pleaded, "She's my little girl…please…"

Sighing Poker handed her arm to Blackjack before he knelt down next to Kraken.

"Where did she start bleeding from?" he asked, fishing around in his pockets and propping one of her eyes open with his thumb.

"Her eyes," answered Kraken, still slightly suspicious.

Poker pulled a small flashlight out of one of his pockets.

"Where'd it start next?"

"The ears, and then the mouth."

"All right then. That means…well, I think it originated somewhere in the front of her brain," he said thoughtfully, "All right, now we can fix this if you do exactly what I say…"


	25. Chapter 25

"Second wave in three minutes," Horror said.

They both turned as the plane touched down on the roof. A few minutes Rumor came out and directed her gaze towards the building.

"Is Luther in…?" Horror started.

"Yeah," she said, "He wanted to cooperate but…he should've said something sooner. I had to rumor him after all."

"And people say **I'm **impatient," leered Séance unpleasantly.

Rumor waved her hand in the air as if to swat him away like an annoying fly.

Any sign of Diego or Vanya?" she asked.

"Nope," answered Séance promptly.

"Not yet," Horror said, "They'd better hurry up to. I don't like thinking that something happened to them…"

"If they don't come out then getting Hargreeves furious at us won't be worth it," muttered Rumor.

"Who the fuck cares what he thinks?" cackled Séance, "We're twenty, we don't need to listen to that old bat anymore."

His words resonated within her. She pondered on that idea for a minute before brushing it away. She didn't have time to think about it right now. Later though…there'd be time for many things later.

.

.

.

"That should fix her up," Poker said quietly, getting up from his crouching position, "She'll be unconscious for awhile…but she'll be fine…yeah."

Kraken held her closer to him as he got up. He shifted her into a bridal-style position. True to what Poker had said, she had stopped bleeding but she was also unconscious. He'd better be right about her being fine too. Otherwise Kraken would have to gut him.

He gave a cursory glance at them before looking back to make out an escape route. It would be easy to get out, and he should go now. There probably wasn't much time. However, the people behind them, as much as he hated them, had just saved Vanya's life. That changed things a bit.

"We need to go," he said shortly, "There're more explosives. If you stay here you'll all die."

"And if we go?" asked Blackjack harshly, "We'll just be shut up for the rest of our lives. How is that better then death?"

Pausing, Kraken looked back at them.

"It's no less then you deserve," he snapped, "You're criminals, and you nearly killed her for no reason other than you wanted her to be your pet. I should just leave you all here to die with the rest of your stupid little family."

Blackjack started forwards before Roulette gave him a halting nudge.

"I don't expect you to understand," she said, "But…we wanted a member of our family back. She is a member and…a member that we endured much tragedy and loss over. And yes, we wanted revenge for what we lost. And we've lost so much. Parents, brothers, sisters…husbands and wives."

She choked back what must've been a sob.

"We tried to alleviate that pain by taking it out on what took it from us. But look what that gave us; more loss. We all knew that this was a gamble, we just never imagined that the stakes were this high."

She swallowed.

"As for me…ever since that day in March nineteen years ago when I came home and found that she'd been taken…I wanted to see her again. It was so selfish and childish…but you know what it's like to want something more than anything. That's the way you look at her."

Gripping Vanya closer Kraken stared at her. She chuckled.

"Don't worry," she said, "That part…that part's over. I suppose I didn't want her taken from me. I suppose that what I really wanted was for things to be the way they were. It seems like only yesterday that she was the little miracle child in my arms wrapped up in a blue blanket. But…that's over now. I'm not the woman I was then, so I obviously can't have the same things as I did then. I was just trying…trying to be someone I used to be. I just wanted…"

Her voice trailed off and she smiled sadly at him.

"I just wanted to hear her call me mother," she said, "Like I said, I don't expect you to understand. But you're a hero…and we are criminals…so just take us in like you're supposed to."

In all actuality Kraken didn't understand. He didn't know what it was like to lose everything for a child and then to search for nearly two decades for it. He hoped he never would. He looked at his love's biological family, from face to face. A sigh came from his throat, a harsh sound.

"Let's get something straight before we go any further with this; I'm not a goddamn hero," he snapped, "All I do is protect things I love, like her. And if you listen to me then none of you have to go to prison. All you need to do is…"

.

.

.

The second blast shot chunks of concrete and flame into the air. Horror flinched away from the spectacle, even as Séance whooped in excitement.

"They didn't get out," he mumbled.

"I…I'm sure they did," said Rumor uncertainly.

Both of them watched the flames for a minute, knowing the slim chances of anyone getting out. As his eyes slid to the side of the building, he thought he could make out three figures fleeing out of a side entrance. It might've just been his imagination though.

"Ben," Rumor whispered.

He looked over to the front of the building in time to see Kraken come out of the building, surrounded by a cloud of smoke and flames. In his arms he carried Vanya. He waved to them as he came over. Rumor breathed out the breath she'd been holding and Horror fought back tears of happiness. Séance just snorted.

"I told you all that you didn't need to worry about that sunuvabitch," he complained loudly, "He was just using this whole 'last minute thing to make himself look like a hero after all."


	26. Chapter 26

Vanya grinned. It was six months after she'd been abducted by Monte Carlo, and she'd just finished moving into her new apartment. When she said 'just finished' she meant it. She'd never moved anywhere but her college dorm before, and that had only been with half of her things.

Now she had everything so unpacking boxes had been a bit of a chore. Especially considering how small the apartment was and surprisingly how much she had. Then there was the question of getting there in the first place. She'd had to make several trips. It was in the downtown area of the City and relatively far away from the Academy.

After the events with Monte Carlo she'd told Hargreeves that she didn't want to spend another minute in college, or in the house for that matter. There had been a fight. Vanya was fairly sure that the earth had moved. However, she pointed out that she was twenty, nearly twenty-one, and frankly he couldn't stop her.

She also had her back-allowances in her own name, so she had money in her own right to pay for it. Realistically, that would run out fairly soon. So she'd gotten a job, not high paying certainly, but it was still a pretty good one. Vanya was doing things for herself, and was getting a kick out of it.

Not much had been settled for anyone else when she left. It had been a rather awkward situation all around actually. Everyone, even Spaceboy, had started feeling a bit more independent of Hargreeves. They'd set a precedent with saving Vanya that night, and she'd set a precedent with moving out.

Several other things had been discovered. First and foremost was that they could act without Hargreeves breathing down their necks. They also found out that they really could go their own way. Then there was the fact that they now knew that they could do something about the way he treated them. No one was in the mood to be talked down to when they realized that they could, in theory at least, defy him whenever they wanted.

The last thing she'd heard from Kraken was that they were taking charge more and more. Séance had gone out and started taking interpretive dance lessons. Horror was making tentative inquiries into community college and Space was thinking about going on an off-planet vacation. He'd even hinted that Rumor was considering going her own way and moving out too. It wasn't the best, but it was a beginning.

Vanya had only been around for Séance to sign up for his lessons. She'd moved out shortly afterwards with a promise from Kraken to follow soon after. Months had passed as he said he needed to smooth out some tricky spots with a couple of 'interesting' cases, whatever that meant. He visited her from time to time though.

Speaking of visitors, he hadn't been her only one. Her mind drifted past to two weeks beforehand.

.

.

.

"Vanya Hargreeves?"

Vanya looked up from her book. The woman who was addressing her looked like she was on the verge of middle age. Her features were slightly plastic, but at the same time they seemed like they were softer. The woman's black hair was about shoulder length, just barely brushing the lilac dress she wore. It took Vanya several minutes of staring to realize it was Roulette.

"I just want to talk," she said softly.

Vanya nodded mutely as Roulette sat down on the park bench next to her. There was an awkward silence for awhile.

"So," Vanya said uncomfortably, "Ah…Rou-"

"Please," she said, "Call me Svetlana. There's nothing to gamble with anymore, so code names aren't needed."

Her tone was sad and it was all that Vanya could do to nod.

" Krake…ahem…**Diego**," Svetlana corrected, "let us go that night."

"He told me," Vanya said quietly.

Svetlana smiled.

"I…I'm glad you found someone like him. He's not a hero certainly, but he's a decent man who seems to care for you deeply. And what he did for us, it was more then we could've asked for, especially after what we did."

There was another silence.

"I suppose saying I'm sorry doesn't really do it," sighed Svetlana, "I just…I just wanted to try to apologize here. That's all I wanted. I don't have any other expectations from this. I don't expect you to forgive me."

Part of Vanya didn't want to forgive her. Part of her wanted to yell for her to go away. Yet, she didn't. Vanya felt like it would be wrong to push her away because Svetlana had just wanted to be her mother, albeit in an odd way. Was Vanya completely normal though? Of course not. Besides, she'd had a feeling something like this would happen, and she'd done quite some thinking on the subject.

After all Kraken had testified that only three members of Monte Carlo, Baccarat, Klondike, and Slots, had been killed. He said that he couldn't verify the whereabouts of the others. He'd explained that there'd been too much smoke for him to see clearly, and he'd only thought about getting her out.

Later he'd taken her aside and explained everything to her. Vanya had felt some relief about this. She didn't want to think that Kraken had killed them, especially not Roulette. After all, she might've been twisted, but she was still the mother Vanya had always wanted to know about.

"Don't worry," she said, "We can…we can forget about it…and maybe…just start…just being…mom."

The word felt awkward on her tongue. Yet, she felt glad that she'd used it when she saw the smile on Svetlana's face.

.

.

.

She wasn't in constant contact with her. They'd met a few times since then, and it wasn't perfect. Once again though, it was just a beginning.

"Glad you finally cut your hair."

Vanya smiled and turned around as if to display her now short-cropped hair. After having long hair for so long it felt surprisingly liberating to have most of it cut off.

"I think I like it too," she smiled.

"Shorter hair always did look better on you," he said, leaning up against the window sill at the fire escape, "I'm happy you got someone professional to do it this time though."

"It was more expensive."

"Probably less dangerous though."

Kraken smirked as he came in through the window. He walked up to her and stroked the back of her head.

"How's it going?" he asked, still giving her a smirk.

"Not bad," she replied.

"I see from the fact that the fortresses of boxes that used to guard this place are gone that you've unpacked," he said, leaning a little closer.

"Surprisingly everything fit," answered Vanya, running her hand over the space above his forehead, "Truth be told, I'm a little pressed for space though. So much stuff and so little room."

"Good thing I don't have too many things," he said.

"So glad I picked a boyfriend who travels light."

"You should be."

She leaned in and kissed him on the lips as he backed her into the wall. She responded deeper and passionately, just wanting to have him closer to her. After she'd come so close to losing him, she didn't feel like she wanted to let him go any time soon, or ever for that matter. When they pulled away she asked;

"Planning on staying?"

"Probably," he said jokingly.

"You'd better," she said, "Because I don't think I'd let you leave."

He smirked before once more capturing her lips in a passionate kiss. It was just a beginning. Unlike the others though, it was the best.


End file.
